Oh, Baby!
by SiriusMarauderFan
Summary: Ten digidestined have been de-aged, and now it's up to Kari and TK to look after the babies while trying to find a way to turn them back with help from Gennai and their families. Plus ... new digidestined? Continued from Aduial Evenstar's story.
1. Getting Settled

**Disclaimer: I, sadly, do not own Digimon. I also do not own the premise of this story. **_**That**_** honor goes to Aduial Evenstar who has the first two chapters of 'Oh, Baby!' posted on her own page. I do, however, own the chapter guide from this chapter and onward. I may even insert my own characters and digimon into the story in later chapters, so keep reading, please!**

So, while I do realize Aduial Evenstar posted an age guide in her first chapter, I feel the need to revise it as it was wrong on a couple of points.

Joe- 20

Tai, Matt, Sora - 19

Mimi, Izzy - 18

Yolei - 17

T.K., Kari, Davis, Ken - 16

Cody - 13

Okay, now I can breathe easy. hehehe. Oh, one last note, I'll most likely be keeping Aduial's pairings of TK/Kari, Ken/Yolei, Tai/Sora, and Mimi/Matt, though I'm not exactly thrilled about the last one. Well, at least I won't have to elaborate on any but Takari since the others are all babies. ^_^

_Previously, on 'Oh, Baby!'__ - T.K. and Kari arrived late to a picnic in the digital world. When they finally arrived, the ten other digidestined had just been turned into babies by an evil digimon named Spetomon. The pair have now resigned themselves to caring for their friends in T.K.'s apartment while waiting to receive news from Gennai._

Chapter Three

"Hey, Kari, how do you know all this stuff? About babies, I mean," TK asked as he fed Davis his bottle and watched Kari heat up nine more while trying to calm down a crying Sora.

"My cousin, Akina, has three kids. I babysit for her whenever I can." Another baby started crying in the living room just as Kari began feeding Sora.

"Great. Any chance she can come over and give us a hand?"

"Not a chance. But I think I've got an idea," she said, staring at the doorway where Gatomon had just entered with Patamon on her head.

"How can we help?" Patamon asked as he flew over to TK. Davis giggled as he looked up at the creature.

"Can you both go back and get the other digimon? They might be able to help us."

"They're probably still knocked out, but I'll see if they're willing to come," Gatomon said as she headed for TK's bedroom and the computer.

"Wait. I'd feel better if both of you went. With Spetomon being out there, and all," Kari called after her.

"She's right. Can you go too?" TK asked Patamon. The digimon nodded enthusiastically and flew out after Gatomon.

They were back by the time Davis and Sora were being burped, with ten Rookie-level digimon trailing behind them.

"Thanks for coming, guys," TK said, kneeling down so Veemon could get a better look at Davis without jumping on the kitchen table.

"No thanks necessary," Agumon said.

"Yeah, it's our fault this happened to them anyway," Gomamon said, frowning uncharacteristically. "They'd be fine if we could've held off Spetomon."

"This isn't your fault," Gatomon said. "Spetomon is very strong - stronger than he used to be. He's got the power of ten digimon now."

"You know him?" Kari asked. Gatomon was saved from answering as three more babies began crying. "Nevermind, we'll talk later. Can any of you help us feed them?"

"Not me. Flippers aren't good for holding babies," Gomamon said, holding up his arms for emphasis.

Tentomon, Armadillomon, Wormmon and Patamon were also regretfully declined. Everyone else was more than willing to help though.

"Good. Grab a bottle and please be careful with your claws."

TK and Kari carried Davis and Sora back into the living room with the digimon following. Soon Kari and seven of the digimon were seated around the room feeding babies while the remaining five helped TK unpack the shopping bags. Suddenly, and to everyone's surprise, the phone rang. Matt, currently in Gabumon's arms, pushed the bottle away and began crying. TK hurried to the kitchen phone while Gabumon tried his best to calm the baby.

"Hello?" TK said, a little out of breath, and covering his ear to block out the crying.

"TK? Is that you? Are you okay?"

"Oh, Dad. Yeah, I'm fine. What's up?"

"You tell me. I thought you guys were supposed to come over a half hour ago. I already tried Matt's cell, but he must have it turned off."

TK mentally cursed himself for not keeping better track of the time. It was almost eight-thirty.

"Um, yeah. I guess we lost track of time. We kinda decided to stay here 'til mom gets back anyway. I mean, if that's all right with you."

"TK, you may be able to fool your mother but you forget, I've learned to decipher Matt's lies - and he's a much better liar than you are. Now what's going on?"

Sighing, TK looked around the kitchen trying to come up with a good enough excuse. He couldn't tell him the truth. As patient and understanding about their destiny as he was, there was no way TK could expect his father to not freak out about Matt being turned into a baby. Kari walked into the room then and gave him a questioning look. He shook his head at her.

"TK? You still there?"

"Yeah, I'm here." He sighed again. "Trust me, Dad, you don't want to know about this one."

"Put Matt on the phone."

"I ... can't."

"Is he injured?"

"Sort of."

"That's it. I'm coming over there now."

"No! Don't come here! You-" TK was interrupted as Kari snatched the phone from him.

"Mr. Ishida? It's Kari Kamiya." There was silence for a minute. TK noticed that Matt had stopped crying. "Yes. Yes, we're all together. No, I can't. Yes. All of them. We got lucky. We should know tomorrow." There was a longer silence. "I will. Not at the moment, but we'll let you know if that changes. Thank you, Mr. Ishida. Yes, here he is." Kari handed the phone back to TK and gave him the thumbs up.

"Okay, listen. I'm going to know the second you find anything out about this, right? And you'll call me if you need anything?"

"Yeah, Dad."

"Good. Oh, and if this isn't sorted out in two days, I _am_ coming over there. Understand?"

"Sure."

"Good luck."

"Thanks. Talk to you soon."

TK hung up the phone and looked at Kari. "Why did you tell him we'd keep him up to date on this?"

"Because it was the only way he was going to accept leaving us alone for a little while. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a lot of phone calls to make."

TK rolled his eyes as he headed back out into the living room and plopped down on the floor in front of the sofa next to Patamon. Kari came out a half hour later looking exhausted.

"All the families think we're camping for the weekend. And dinner's on it's way. Yes, Veemon, I ordered enough for everyone," she said before the digimon even opened his mouth, making everyone laugh.

Slowly, Kari looked surveyed the items TK had bought, which the digimon had separated into heaps around the room. The baby clothes, for example, were sorted into piles and then put on one side of the dining room table. The other side of the table held diapers, wipes and powders and had two large towels laid out. Formula, the few cans of baby food, and the empty bottles were currently being carried into the kitchen. And Biyomon and Tentomon were seeing that all the babies were wrapped in blankets.

"We should probably get them dressed," Kari said, her eyes lingering on Mimi whose shrunken shirt didn't cover her stomach, and miniskirt couldn't offer any sort of warmth. TK agreed and they carried Mimi and Sora to the dining room table.

TK watched as Kari began removing Mimi clothes, but stopped her before she started on the skirt.

"Kari?" She paused and looked up at him from across the table. "Do you mind if I ... um. I mean, could I ...?"

"Do you want me to handle changing the girls?" she asked, trying to hold back a smirk.

"Would you mind?"

"No. And I'll take care of Tai and Ken too, to make things even."

TK nodded and smiled gratefully before hurrying out of the room. Kari made quick work of removing Mimi's skirt and underwear and throwing them in a garbage bag positioned between the two changing stations on the table. The baby started to squirm then, from the cold. But before she could fully wake up, Kari had slide a diaper on her, then put her in one of the twenty or so sleepers they had, and passed her to Palmon to be wrapped in a blanket. Kari was just moving to the other side of the table to start on Sora when TK walked in carrying Matt.

"So, how old do you think they are, anyway? They can't be more than a few months, right?" he asked conversationally, judging Matt's size as he took off his jacket and shirt.

"One or two weeks, I think. Actually, I remember Akina telling me about this website that has everything you need to know about kids up to age nine, I think," Kari said as she finished up with Sora and handed her off to Biyomon. Hawkmon entered with a whimpering Yolei a minute later.

"Great. But do you think it would apply to these guys? I mean, it's not like they're regular babies."

"I don't see why not - they've seemed normal enough so far." Kari looked up at TK before starting on Yolei. He was standing there with a diaper in one hand, and he was staring at it with a strange look. Matt was on the towel in front of him, completely naked and curling up to try and get warm. After a minute or so, he began to cry.

Kari was at TK's side in a flash. "What's wrong?" she asked, raising her voice a little over the crying.

"I don't know how to put a diaper on." He looked down at his shoes, ashamed.

She probably would've starting laughing if Matt's cries hadn't grown a bit. Smiling gently, she took the diaper from TK and stood in front of Matt.

"Watch closely," she said, and out of the corner of her eye she saw TK's head snap up and watch her every move. She quickly opened the diaper and slid it under Matt, then did up the tabs, all while avoiding being hit by his flailing arms and legs. TK passed her a sleeper when she asked for one and watched as she wrestled to get it on the baby. "Think you can calm him down?" TK nodded and she went back to Yolei.

When all ten babies were diapered, dressed and fast asleep in the living room, TK followed Kari down the hall to his bedroom to use the computer. She sat in the desk chair and started up the computer while he sat on the edge of the bed right behind her.

In a few seconds she was typing in "Baby Center dot com." The screen went black and then popped back to life on what was presumably the home page. White background, lots of blue and green writing. A few flashing ads, too. There were seven buttons near the top, stating the age groups from 'Getting Pregnant' to 'Big Kid.' Beneath that was a timeline broken down into weeks and months. Kari clicked on 'Newborn' and a new page appeared, giving facts and advice on raising a newborn. They read through it all quickly, then proceeded to look at the next three weeks.

"Almost definitely two weeks," Kari said as they walked back to the living room a few minutes later. There was a knock at the front door and a couple of babies began crying. TK went to check on them while Kari got and paid for the four large pizzas. She grinned when she entered the living room to find TK sitting on the couch, rocking Matt.

"Apparently he doesn't like noise very much," he whispered with a chuckle.

Kari put the pizza boxes down on the coffee table and was heading into the kitchen to get her and TK drinks when Tai started crying. She eyed the digimon gathering around the boxes, Agumon and Veemon especially.

"Make sure they save us some," she whispered to Gatomon, who then took charge in distributing the food.

Tai quieted down a little when Kari picked him up, but picked right up again when the smell of his own soiled diaper hit his nose. Kari sighed as she carried him to the dining room table. She was pretty sure she heard a few muffled laughs and vowed to find out who they were from later on.

Removing Tai's sleeper, she was pleased to see that it hadn't gotten dirty. The less laundry she had to do, the better. Tai's crying had thankfully died down to whimpering, but there was still a steady stream of tears running down his cheeks. As fast as possible, Kari removed the dirty diaper and threw it away, then grabbed a couple of wipes and - holding Tai's ankles with one hand - she began to clean up the mess. Once Tai was wearing a fresh diaper and his sleeper again, Kari sat down in one of the dining room chairs and slowly rocked him back and forth until he finally fell asleep.

Back in the living room, most of the digimon were already passed out, resting near their respective partners. TK managed to eat his dinner without too much trouble. It seemed Matt only liked TK or Gabumon to look after him - though he preferred TK more - and would wail whenever anyone else tried. So they agreed to take turns eating or sleeping. Gabumon got the first caregiving shift for the night.

After finishing dinner and taking care of a few more diaper changes, TK and Kari watched an hour of tv before said goodnight to everyone and retiring to TK's bedroom - Kari sleeping in the bed and TK on the floor, if only for a few hours that night.

**Author's Note:**

So, that's chapter one ... er, chapter three, one for me. lol. What did you think? You know, with all the strange things I had to write here, the weirdest line for me was "TK followed Kari down the hall to his bedroom." lolololol.

Well, this'd be my first posted fic of '09, so yay me! Though I was kinda saving that honor for a really cool Twilight story I'm writing. Oh, well.

Anyway, the site that I mentioned in here - BabyCenter - is a real website and one I visit at least once a week. Not only is it an amazing site for parents, it's great for writers of young characters. Especially good for someone like me, who has absolutely no experience with kids. Check it out!

I'm rambling now. Please review with comments, flames, story ideas or whatever! Chapter four already in progress. ^_^

-Lizzy


	2. One For All

**Author's Note:**

Disclaimer was mentioned in the first chapter. Click on the little 'back' button if you want to see it again.

Big, big, big thanks to everyone who reviewed. You guys are awesome! And your reviews gave me the push to continue writing. Now, on with the story!

Chapter Four

Kari groaned as the early morning light shone through the bedroom window and onto her pillow. She quickly threw a hand up to shield her eyes and yawned. '_Tai must have left the drapes open again,_' she thought groggily. Thinking of Tai made a few strange scenes flash through her head. Too strange to be memories, she decided, so they had to be from a dream. A very confusing dream about babies and sleeping over at TK's place.

Light snoring broke through her thoughts - too light to be Tai's, and too heavy to be Gatomon's. Kari's eyes snapped open immediately and she looked around the room frantically, willing herself to be in her own bed so she wouldn't have to face the reality of their new dilemma. Eventually she gave up on her hope and slid out of bed to stretch. The clock on the bedside table read 7:34, she noticed.

It hadn't exactly been a peaceful night for either teen. Ten infants in the apartment meant that at least two were awake at the same time during the night. Most of that time, one's crying would result in two more starting up. Both TK and Kari were very grateful to the twelve digimon companions staying with them. As limited as they were in some areas, they really tried their hardest to take care of the babies' needs before getting a human. Twenty-one bottles and thirty-six diaper changes later, Kari calculated she'd only gotten about four and half to five hours sleep.

Leaving TK to sleep a bit more, Kari made her way to the living room to find several of the babies already awake and being fed. She greeted the digimon as cheerfully as she could manage and then walked into the kitchen to fix herself some breakfast. TK came in just as she sat down at the kitchen table with a bowl of cereal. He joined her a minute later, looking just as exhausted.

"What time did Gennai say to be online?" he asked after a few minutes of silence.

"Uh, nine. Why?"

"We're almost out of supplies. And we need some groceries too. I was thinking of going out after breakfast - unless you'd prefer to go."

"Better let Matt decide that one," Kari said, giggling.

During the night, Matt's preference for TK had grown quite a bit so that Gabumon wasn't even allowed to pick him up. But when the teens went back to the living room, they saw that he was perfectly fine in the digimon's arms. TK began to get on his winter coat and boots while Kari located Tai's backpack from the pile they'd brought from the Digital World the day before. She took his wallet from one of the pockets.

"Here, take this," she said to TK, handing him some money.

"Won't Tai mind when he gets back to normal?"

"He better not. He's using up most of the formula and diapers anyway."

TK laughed and thanked her as he accepted the money. Once he was gone, Kari went back to the living room to relieve some of the digimon of their night duties. An hour later, when there was no sign of him returning, she went to his room with Ken sleeping in her arms and started up the computer. At nine o'clock exactly, a message popped up on the screen.

Gennai- Kari? TK? Are you there?

Blonde BB- Just Kari. TK's on his way. Have you found anything out about Spetomon?

Gennai- Nothing I didn't already know.

Kari sighed. TK walked in carrying Matt and sat down on the bed. Gatomon came and sat beside him.

Gennai- Spetomon was created to protect our world. He's as strong as ten Mega-Level digimon. And I believe you've already witnessed his greatest power - age reversal. Of course, before now he's only used it on those who threatened our world. Never a human.

Blonde BB- TK here. Is there any way to get the others back to normal?

Gennai- Aside from letting them age normally, the only way would be for Spetomon to lift the spell.

Blonde BB- Do you have any idea why he would do this in the first place?

Gennai- I'm sorry, no. As I said, Spetomon was created for good. I can't imagine why he'd harm any of you when you're on the same team.

An idea came to Kari and she ignorred TK's questioning glance as she typed.

Blonde BB- Do you know where we could find him? - Kari.

Gennai- Yes. He's lived in the same cave in the Eastern side of Marthol Mountain since his creation. But you must be careful if you go looking for him. I can't promise that he'll react any differently than he did yesterday.

Blonde BB- Thank you. We'll contact you if we find anything out.

Gennai- Likewise. Good luck.

Gennai logged off at 9:18:15 a.m.

Blonde BB logged off at 9:18:47 a.m.

Kari turned around in the chair to look at Gatomon.

"How much of that did you know?" she asked.

"Almost all of it," the feline admitted. "I joined Myotismon on a trip to that cave once. He wanted Spetomon to join him, to de-age all his enemies. Spetomon refused, and he tried to de-age us instead. Myotismon threw someone else in the way though. He was reduced to an egg. That was the last time I heard anything from Spetomon."

"Do you remember the way to the cave?"

Gatomon was about to answer when TK cut in.

"Whatever it is you're planning, I'm not letting you go in that cave alone," he said sternly. Kari raised an eyebrow at him.

"Well, we can't both go."

"Why not?"

"First, you need to call your father and fill him in."

"I can't tell-"

"Just tell him that we might have found a way to cure them and that I've gone to look into it. Okay?" She waited for a reply before going on.

"Fine. Anything else?"

"Yes. Second, one of us needs to stay here in case Gennai writes again. Or a human phones or comes to the door. And third, Matt would never let you leave." To prove her point, Kari handed Ken to Gatomon and tried to take Matt from his brother's arms. The infant squealed and latched on to TK's shirt with both fists.

"What happens if you…?" TK swallowed hard.

"Get hurt? Killed? TK, listen to me. If it helps the rest of the group, I'll gladly sacrifice my life, okay? This is a decision only I can make, and I'm making it right now," Kari said, her normally calm brown eyes crackling with electicity.

He sighed and nodded reluctantly. Gatomon left the room silently with Ken. Kari followed her out and returned a minute later holding her jacket in one hand and her shoes in the other. She began getting dressed as she spoke.

"Keep your D-Terminal close. I'll try to keep in touch as much as possible." TK nodded again.

"I still wish you weren't going. There's got to be another way to reverse this spell."

"But there isn't ... unless you'd prefer to act as father for the next eighteen years," she said with a chuckle. TK laughed and rolled his eyes. Kari leaned over Matt and gave TK a quick hug and light kiss on the lips. Gatomon entered then, carrying Kari's backpack.

"It's going to be a long ride to the cave, so I packed lunch," she explained.

Kari slung the backpack over her shoulder. She made sure her D-Terminal was in her jacket pocket before holding her digivice to the computer screen and being sucked into the digital world with Gatomon right behind her.

**Author's Note:**

I wanted to make this chapter longer by adding in the journey to the cave, but I thought that part would work better in the next chappy with a couple other things happening there.

So, please review and let me know what you think. I'd love to hear any plot ideas you've got too.

Oh, and one quick question for all you digi-fanatics. It's been a while since I saw any season so forgive me if I'm being an idiot here, but was Sora's father not named Bob in season two? I've found two info sites so far and both only have his Japanese name, Haruhiko. I might be bringing him in later and if I can help it, I'd rather stick with the English names. Thanks to anyone who answers this. ^_^

-Lizzy


	3. In It Together

**Author's Note:**

Terribly sorry for the lack of updating. I came down with a cold the day after I posted the last chapter, so I've been stuck in bed. Although it certainly gave me a lot of time to work out the plot. Feeling much better today, so here I am. ^_^

Again, bigs thanks to the wonderful reviewers.

Chapter Five

It was raining when they landed in the Digital World. Kari pulled the hood up on her jacket and sighed.

"Well, let's get going." She looked down at Gatomon expectantly but the digimon was looking off in the distance at the blurry outline of a mountain.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Her eyes remained on the mountain.. "We won't be a help to anyone if he de-ages us too."

"I know, but we've got to try. Hopefully this was all some misunderstanding and he'll be cooperative."

Gatomon looked doubtful, but nodded anyway. Nothing she said was going to change Kari's mind and she knew that. She quickly Armour Digivolved into Nefertimon and allowed Kari to climb on her back before beginning the three-hour flight to Marthol Mountain.

_-The Apartment-_

"I bet five gumballs he's going to come here," said Gomamon, pushing his small pile of candy into the center of the coffee table.

"I'll take that bet." Armadillomon mimicked the action.

"He'll definitely come, no matter what TK says," Gabumon said.

"Well I wouldn't mind if he did. We could certainly use some help around here," said Biyomon.

"Quiet down, guys," Veemon whispered from half-way down the hall. "He's dialling."

"Hey, Dad," TK said unenthusiastically. If there wasn't a chance of a digimon blabbing to Kari, he would've lied to her about calling his father.

"Is everything okay? Any news yet?"

_'Great, no greeting,' _TK thought. _'He's either really mad or really worried.'_

"Everything's pretty much the same as yesterday. But we did find out what's making everyone sick, and how to cure them."

"That's great. So Matt's okay now?"

"Er, no. Kari's gone to find the one ... thing that can reverse the illness. If everything goes well, they'll be back to normal by tonight." TK waited silently for a response for a few seconds.

"Are you okay, TK? Do you need any help?"

"I'm fine, Dad. And I've got all the help I need. Thanks, though."

When he was finished on the phone, TK came back to the living room to find several digimon positioned around the coffee table and tackling any one who tried to take the candy lying on top. He thought it best not to ask what they were doing. He sat down on the couch next to Wormmon and watched a soap opera on tv, though his mind was on Kari. He was still sitting there staring at the tv when there was a knock on the door twenty-five minutes later.

"I _told_ you!" Gomamon said, laughing as he began to divide the candy.

"_Quiet!_" TK hissed. He waited for all the digimon to become completely still to open the door. "Dad?! What are you doing here? I thought you said you were going to come if everything wasn't solved by Monday. It's only Saturday."

"I know what I said, but I figured you'd only come up with another excuse to keep me away. Now where's Matt?" Hiroaki pushed TK out of the doorway and entered the apartment. He walked into the living room with TK right behind him.

The scene that they found there could have been considered quite funny though neither laughed. Gomamon, Agumon and Palmon were leaning against the coffee table, stuffing their faces with candy while Veemon continued to steal it all from them. Patamon was asleep on the couch with his wings stretched out, covering Cody and Joe on either side of him. Tentomon and Wormmon seemed completely content sitting in front of the tv watching the abandoned soap opera. Armadillomon and Hawkmon were playing a game in the corner with candy wrappers that kind of looked like checkers. And Gabumon and Biyomon were cleaning up after the others. Of course, the thing that caught Hiroaki's eye were the ten babies scattered around the room.

"How...?" was all he managed to get out after a few minutes. TK sighed.

"They were having a picnic. Kari and I were late. This digimon did it to them, but we're not sure why. Kari's gone to talk to it, to see if it'll help us."

"It can be reversed?"

"Yes. But only by that digimon."

"And if not ... then they have to grow up normal?"

"Yeah."

The room went silent again for a few minutes. TK bit his lip. Hiroaki seemed to be making his mind up about something.

"Do you have enough supplies?" he asked finally.

"Yeah, I just went shopping this morning."

"And the other families, what do they think about this?"

"Kari told them we're camping for the weekend." TK glanced nervously between the digimon and his father.

"Well, we're going to have to tell if this thing doesn't want to help us." TK nodded. "But until then, I'm staying here with you." He began taking off his coat and boots.

"Dad, you don't have to. I mean, we've pretty much got everything covered here."

"You look dead tired. Go get some rest and I'll watch over things here." Hiroaki rolled his eyes when TK didn't move. "Trust me. I've got nothing better to do today anyway."

With a little assurance from Gabumon and Patamon, TK went to room and lied down on the bed. But he was still to worried about Kari to pass out.

_-Digital World-_

After a couple of hours in the air, Kari and Nefertimon stopped on a tiny bit of land in the middle of the sea to eat and rest, then they took off again. They reached the mountain in record time, bypassing the trail where they could see Bakemon and various other troublesome digimon hiding in caves, waiting to attack an unsuspecting traveler.

Near the top of the mountain was the wide opening of a dark cave that had clearly wasn't visited very often. Large rocks and boulders half-covered the entrances, but the opening was big enough for the average sized human to pass through so they had no trouble. They were three feet into the cave when a hoarse voice called out to them.

"Who's there?"

Kari stopped walking and held out a hand to stop Nefertimon. There wasn't much light in the cave. And what little there was only lit up to a few feet in front of them.

"I'm Kari. This is my friend Nefertimon. We've come to speak with Spetomon. We need his help."

Light suddenly filled the tight space and as Kari's eyes adjusted to it, she realized three torches hanging on the far wall had been lit. A digimon sat huddled on the floor. It's silver wings were wrapped tightly around his body so the only bit visible was his head. Small black eyes popped against white skin. It had short, spiky black hair on his head. And he didn't seem to be in any mood to fight.

"I'm Spetomon," he said.

"You can't be," Nefertimon said. She took a few steps forward before Kari could stop her. "Spetomon is a large black creature with red wings and eyes. You look nothing like him."

The creature smiled at them, but the smiled quickly turned into a grimace and he hissed in pain. He closed his eyes and took a couple of deep breaths before he spoke.

"I _am_ Spetomon. What you saw last night was an illusion."

"It wasn't an illusion that de-aged our friends."

"No, that was me - and I am very sorry for that. In regards to my appearance though, Hallumon will explain."

Something flickered to the left of Kari and she turned to see a small creature float through the cave wall carrying a silver tray with four goblets on it.

From what Kari could see of it, the digimon was about three feet tall and wore a purple knee-length dress over her human-like figure. Every inch of her body was covered in short, tan hair - though it grew longer on her head where she had it pulled back in a loose pony-tail. Her eyes were a warm brown and she smiled when she saw them. She appeared to be floating, but Kari could see the occasional glint of her wings, fluttering very fast like a hummingbird's. And the longer you stared at her, she more she seemed to disappear for a few seconds, then reappear as if nothing happened.

"Well, hello there. I thought I heard voices," she said cheerfully as she placed the tray on a large rock in the corner and then flew over to get a closer look at them. "See, Spet, I told you they wouldn't be mad," she called over her shoulder.

"No, we're not mad," Kari agreed, cutting off Nefertimon in mid-argument. "But we'd like to know why you de-aged our friends."

"Well, that's simple," Hallumon said. "We were blackmailed. We didn't have any other choice. And it's such a good thing you and that boy weren't there at the time, because none of us knew how we were going to get away with acting like Spetomon missed you."

"Hally, you're getting ahead of yourself. They don't have any idea what you're talking about," the other creature said. "Start with Cadet." Hallumon frowned, but nodded.

"How much do you two know about us?" she asked.

"We only know about Spetomon," Kari answered. Nefertimon mumbled something beside her, but she couldn't make it out.

"Of course," Hally sighed and she shook her head. "Well, Speto and myself and several others were created at the same time. Designed to take care of the Digital World, we were. And we did our job quite well, if I do say so myself.

"We each had our own unique abilities that helped us guard this world from anyone who wanted to destroy it. You know about Speto's aging, obviously. Mine is illusions. That wall, for example," she nodded toward the one she'd come through. "There's a door there, but I've made it look as though it's all rock. I do the same to Speto whenever he goes to battle. He looks so ... gentle, normally. As you can see. I created the illusion to scare our enemies.

"Anyway, for these last few decades we've been taking it easy. You know, stopping to smell the roses, watching the sunset, enjoying life. Our main hobby is taking care of all the digimon Speto's de-aged over the years. They were once evil, of course, but when they're de-aged their memories are wiped. They have the chance to start over in our care. But then ... I don't suppose you've heard of Cadetmon?"

Both Kari and Nefertimon shook their heads.

"Cadetmon isn't as old as us, but she's been around for quite a while. She's known for gaining the trust of a lot of digimon and then making them turn on their friends. She once built an army up for an evil being - can't remember his name now, but it's not important. There were thousands of digimon she'd gotten to fight for them. We, unfortunately, had to turn them all when we turned their boss. Cadetmon escaped us though. We didn't think much of it at the time, that was back when she didn't have as great a reputation.

"A couple centuries later, she built up another army. Can't remember the guy she was working for that time either, but we dealt with that one easily. And we haven't heard from her since."

"We thought she died, what with there being so many digidestined nowadays," Spetomon said.

"Yeah, except she came here a two days ago. She came right in this very cave, the nerve of her! She came with a few others. There was a fight. In the end, she got away with most of her goons. We would have gone after them if we hadn't noticed that one of our own was missing." Hallumon bowed her head sadly.

"Ennamon," Spetomon said, "is my wife. Cadetmon took her and left behind a randsom note. The note stated that I had to de-aged all the digidestined otherwise she would destroy Enna. The first chance I got was when I saw your group having that picnic."

"So you see why we decided it best to try and leave some normal in each group," Hally said suddenly. "We were hoping you'd come looking for us. We could try to fight Cadet on our own, but we don't know how many digimon she had with her, and we're afraid any attempt we make is going to hurt Enna. Help us, please."

Kari looked at Nefertimon and could see the the feline was as convinced that the tale was real as she was.

"We'll help you," she said. "But we need you to change our friends back first. We're going to need everyone to take down this Cadetmon."

"I can't," Speto said. "Cadet and her soldiers came here this morning and punished me for leaving you and the boy unharmed. Tomorrow she wants me to start tracking the Americans. She allowed me the day to heal." Slowly and carefully, Spetomon lifted his wings to reveal bandages wrapping his torso and cuts and bruises marking his arms and legs.

"Thankfully one of our friends is a healer, a strong one. Speto will be fine by tomorrow morning. But just think what they'll do to him if Cadet find out he reversed the effects on your friends," Hallumon said sadly.

"What can we do, then? None of the other digidestined will come if they're already fighting for their lives," Nefertimon said. Hally smiled at this.

"Oh, don't worry. We've already figured that out for you."

"Yes. Cadetmon let slip today that she's only putting this plan into action now because of the new digi-eggs appearing in Primary Village last week." Even Speto managed a small smile.

"What digi-eggs?" asked Kari.

"The digi-eggs meant for the new digidestined, of course." When both Kari and Nefertimon gave her a clueless look, Hally continued with an explanation. "Well the 'destined' eggs always look different from the other eggs, you know. At least the do to the guardians of Primary Village. Enna was the very first guardian there but she handed the reigns to Elecmon ages ago. When he took over he received the gift of Sight, which allows him to automatically tell which eggs are meant to a digidestined. When they are, he puts them aside until someone comes looking for it, or one of us older digimon take them.

"Cadetmon must have been spying on him and noticed him separating the eggs. And when she saw that new digidestined are on their way, she got worried. So she's getting us to wipe out the whole population of old digidestined for her so she'll only have the new ones to deal with."

"I wouldn't be surprised if she wants to raise all the de-aged humans as a new type of army for herself," added Spetomon.

"I guess we should try to find these new digidestined, then," Nefertimon said. Kari nodded.

"If Elecmon gives you any trouble, tell him that we sent you. He still keeps in touch with Enna so he'll do anything to help save her," Speto said.

Kari and Nefertimon thanked to two ancient digimon wished them luck. When they were in the air a few minutes later, Kari took out her D-Terminal and wrote an email to TK.

_TK,_

_We're just leaving the cave now. It's more complicated than we thought. We'll explain when we get back._

_Have to go to Primary Village first._

_How's everything going there?_

_See you soon, Kari_

A reply came in seconds later.

_We're fine. Got more help. -TK_

Kari tried her best to decypher the note on the flight to Primary Village. She hadn't gotten anything out of it when they landed. Elecmon rushed over to them as she hopped down from Nefertimon's back. He looked excited about something. Nefertimon devolved to Gatomon now that they were safe.

"We're here to see the new digi-eggs for the digidestined," Kari explained. Elecmon grinned and nodded.

"Of course, right this way."

He led them past all the other eggs and cradles into a private clearing hidden behind two large trees. The small field was covered with almost as many digi-eggs as were in the previous area. They were in every color and pattern. Kari's mouth hung open in shock.

"How ... how many are there?" she asked.

"Twenty-four. I count 'em twice a day," the digimon answered proudly.

"Twenty-four new digidestined," Gatomon muttered. "No wonder she's worried."

There was a television set just outside the village so Gatomon and Kari quickly loaded the eggs into Kari's backpack and borrowed several more strong bags from Elecmon to carry the others. When all eggs were packed, they made their way home.

_-The Apartment-_

TK had given up on trying to sleep in after an hour in bed. Instead he'd spent the better part of the last four hours discussing with his father the best way to handle each of his friends' families, should they need to be notified about their child's de-aging. They were feeding the babies when Kari and Gatomon came back at two-thirty.

Kari had announced their arrival from the bedroom and TK called them into the living room, wondering how she would take Hiroaki's help. But suddenly had more important thoughts when she rounded the corner with a bag full of digi-eggs on each arm. Gatomon also had two bags, along with the single egg she held in her hands.

The next fifteen minutes was spent swapping summaries of their day. After that, a few of the digimon started begging to see the eggs so Kari and Gatomon unloaded them onto the bed in the TK's mom's room. Hiroaki followed them in, curious about the eggs. Everybody was so preoccupied that no one noticed when the screen of the computer in the corner began to glow.

"I wonder who these new digidestined are," Veemon said, visibly excited about the idea of more friends. At that precise moment a beam shot out of the computer and flew into Hiroaki's empty hands. On the bed, an egg near him with orange and green specks began to rattle and glow before a long crack appeared down one side of it.

TK went to his father's side and peered down at the strange new digivice he held with wide eyes. It wasn't too hard to do the math. Twenty-four eggs. He knew twenty-four capable humans...

"Um, Kari." She turned. "I think you better call your parents over here. Tell them they need to pick up their new partners."

**Author's Note:**

Wow, that was surprisingly easy to write, considering how long it was.

Please, please, please review with your thoughts on this chapter. I personally think it's the best so far. Most of that stuff in the cave I made up as I wrote, didn't turn out too bad though, did it?

Once again, I need to know what the English name of Haruhiko (thanks Lord Pata!) Takenouchi is.

Lastly, (since you've now got a pretty good idea who the new digidestined are) if you'd like to see a drawing of the twenty-four new digivices, go to my profile and look under Fan Fiction Extras. There will be a link there to a picture on photobucket for you. Or, you could wait until the next chapter where I introduce all the new digidestined officially and then check out the pic. Your choice. ^_^

-Lizzy 3


	4. Author's Note

**Author's Note**

Hi all. I guess it's been a while since my last chapter. I'm sorry about that. I don't want to bore you with my reasons why I've been away, so I'll just say that I'm going through some problems with my family. The good news is that writing has been helping me with the real life problems.

With inspiration from National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) which I participated in last month, I'm starting up another writing competition that will force me to write six novels next year. Each one in a month, like NaNoWriMo. I've decided to use this competition as a way to push myself to finish my fanfiction as well as finally start some actually real life novels. To sum it all up, come January I will be back to writing "Oh, Baby!" and will have the story finished by the end of the month, guaranteed.

I want to thank everyone who reviewed, favorited, alerted, and sent me messages while I've been away. Believe me, I've noticed. And they're what pushed me to continue writing during this difficult time. So thank you.

I look forward to hearing from everyone in the new year. Until then, I have a novel to finish. Happy Holidays!!

-Lizzy =)


	5. Announcement Day

**Author's Note:**

As promised, here is the new chapter. More to come throughout the month. =)

Hope everyone had a great time over the holidays. Happy New Year!

Chapter Six

"So, what do we do now?" Hiroaki asked as he stared down at the little light blue blob sitting in a wooden cradle on the corner of the bed. The Poyomon hadn't stopped looking at him since it hatched and he wasn't sure what to do with it.

"I guess we're going to have to stay here for a few more days while this little guy and the others grow up a bit," Patamon answered as he sat down beside the cradle and examined the baby digimon. "It's strange though ... I would have thought you'd end up with a Punimon," he said thoughtfully. Gabumon, sitting on the floor beside TK's father, nodded in agreement.

"Why? What's wrong with this one?"

"Nothing's wrong," Gabumon said. "What he meant is that, since Poyomon is Patamon's fresh form, we thought you would have Punimon, which is mine."

"Huh. So I could only end up with you two ... no others?"

"Well, nothing like this has ever happened before. But I'd imagine family has some meaning here. Matt and TK have been digidestined for eight years now-"

"So you think this is somehow contagious?" Hiroaki asked.

"Maybe. We'll know for sure when the others hatch."

"I'm not calling my parents, TK," Kari said, continuing the argument she'd been having for the past five minutes. "They'll freak out if I tell them about Tai."

"You're going to have to tell them sooner or later, since it seems like the only way to get him back to normal is with their help," TK said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"We don't even know if they're the new digidestined yet. This could just be a big coincidence."

"Okay, so why don't you call your parents over here and then we'll know for sure?"

Kari was about to argue again when an idea struck her.

"I've got a better idea," she said, pulling out her cell phone.

"Who are you calling?" TK asked suspiciously.

"Jim. If we have to test your theory, I'd rather use someone who accepts digimon completely."

After Kari's phone call, the group went back to their separate activities until they heard a knock on the door nearly an hour later. TK answered the door while the others kept the babies from making any noise. Jim Kido was standing out in the hallway with an older man who TK recognized as Sora's father.

"Mr. Takenouchi, what are you doing here?" he asked as he let the men inside and took their coats.

"Kari said it was an emergency so I thought it might help if Haruhiko came along," Jim explained.

"I hope that was all right," Haruhiko added hastily.

"Yeah, I'm sure we're going to need your help anyway."

"So, where's Kari and this big emergency?" Jim asked as Gomamon rounded the corner.

"Hey, Jim! You wanna see Joe?" The digimon asked rather loudly. Palmon ran out of the living room and glared at him.

"Would you please keep it down? We just got them back to sleep," she hissed.

"Them?" said Haruhiko. "Who?"

"Oh, uh, no one. That emergency is in one of the bedrooms. This way." TK began to lead the way down the hall, but Haruhiko decided to follow the digimon back into the living room instead.

"What happened?" he asked as he recognized Sora, who was lying on a chair next to the entrance.

Kari and TK gave the pair a short synopsis of everything they'd learned in the past two days.

"Jeez, we've still got twenty-one more people to explain this to," Veemon complained to Tentomon. "Maybe we should send out a mass newsletter or something."

"Where are these eggs, then?" Jim said. "I want to try out your theory."

Kari showed them into the master bedroom. The men were in awe of the eggs, all sitting perfectly still. Jim inched closer to the bed and was just reaching out his hand to touch the surface of a striped one, when the computer screen began to glow again. Kari, who had been watching it carefully, brought it to their attention just before the beams shot out and two digivices appeared.

Jim's hand landed on the egg as it started shaking. He could hear a voice too, whispering, but he couldn't make out the words. He knelt down beside the bed and watched intently as the baby digimon worked it's way out of the shell. Haruhiko, meanwhile, was taking turns watching his own egg and examining the digivice.

It wasn't too different from the past models, he noted, having studied both versions on many occasions. This newest model was in an oval, though the sides were curved inward. In the middle of the device was a square screen, framed by an inch-thick border that seemed to be a different color for each person. Above the screen was a symbol - the crest. And below the screen were three buttons.

Haruhiko finished his evaluation just in time to see both digimon hatch. His being Nyokimon - who appeared to be a black seed with yellow eyes and green leaves sprouting out of it's head - and Jim's being Pichimon, a near-transparent little fish creature.

"Well, I guess this confirms it," Kari said to TK as they arrived back in the living room with the baby digimon. "The new digidestined _are_ our families."

"Hey, you say that like it's a bad thing," Jim said with a smirk.

"Well, no offence, but it is," Kari said as she pulled out her cell phone again. "Mimi's parents are still in New York, and getting them here without telling them what's going on is going to be tricky. Come to think of it, getting _anyone_ here is going to be tricky."

"Yeah. And my mom's not going to be home for a week. There's no way I can get her home earlier, either," said TK.

"Okay, then let us help. Give us the numbers of the other parents and let us make the calls," Hiroaki offered.

TK thought it over for a minute before digging a book out of his backpack and flipping it open to a page at the back. In bold, red letters at the top of the page it said '_EMERGENCY NUMBERS_.'

"Best let me call my parents, though," Kari said as she began to dial the number.

"Yeah. And I'll call mine," Jim said.

"I should be the one to tell Sora's mother," Haruhiko said.

Kari and the three older men left the living room and chose separate rooms to make their calls in, for the privacy.

Mr. Kamiya was out when Kari phoned her apartment, but her mother promised that both of them would come over as soon as he was home. The teenager decided it best not to tell them what was wrong, especially when her mother asked to speak to Tai.

When she was through with her family, Kari made the call to Davis's, having spent enough time at his place that his parents wouldn't think twice about doing whatever she said in case Jun did. Sure enough, Davis' sister answered the phone and questioned Kari about where Davis was and what they were doing. Mr. Motomiya eventually saved Kari from dodging any more questions and agreed to come over in a couple of hours.

Kari returned to the living room and let TK know she was done with the phone so he could do his part and call Cody's mother and Yolei's family to come down to his apartment right away. She passed Hiroaki on her way back to TK's bedroom. He looked exhausted as he trudged back into the living room and sat down beside Matt.

"Everything okay?" TK asked him.

"Oh, great," he said sarcastically. "Your mother blames me for 'whatever happened' and says she can't get out of work until Friday. And I called Mimi's parents."

"Ah." TK nodded his head and smiled sympathetically. "What did they say?"

"Well, after all the screaming and demanding to know what happened to her, they said they'd get here as soon as they could. Monday at the latest."

TK nodded again and started dialing Cody's home number.

_-TK's Bedroom-_

Kari sat down at the computer and logged on to another private chatroom the Digidestined had all to themselves. But while the first connected direction to Gennai, this one was for international conferences.

Using her D-Terminal, she wrote a quick email to six of her friends and waited patiently for them to come online. Within seconds the names began to pop up on the screen. Mimi's American friend Michael, Derek from Australia, Anna from Russia, Catherine from France, Rosa from Mexico, and Manchu Poi from Hong Kong.

Michael - Kari? What's going on? I just got a call from Mimi's mom. She was hysterical, talking about Mimi being hurt or something.

Derek - Are the others all right?

Kari - They're fine. There's been an accident though. That's why I needed to talk to you.

Rosa - What happened then?

Kari - All of the others, except TK, have been turned into babies.

Anna - How?

Kari - Spetomon. He lives on Marthol Mountain. I spoke to him earlier. Another digimon, Cadetmon, blackmailed him into turning them.

Michael - Why now?

Kari - It's a long story. I'll be able to explain everything next week. I wanted to warn you though. She's ordered Spetomon to go after the Americans next. He's supposed to keep going until all the Digidestined are de-aged.

Michael - Not a problem. We can fend him off.

Kari - Just be sure not to hurt him. He doesn't want to do any of this.

Manchu - Kari, do you need any help? My brothers and I are willing to come over if you need us.

Kari - No, thank you. TK and I are managing with our families. Just worry about keeping yourselves safe.

Anna - What will it take to turn everyone back to normal?

Kari - Spetomon has to do that himself. But he can't until Cadetmon is gone.

Derek - How do you plan to do that?

Kari bit her lip. She wasn't sure she should mention the fact that all of their families were turning out to be new Digidestined. She didn't know what she was afraid of in telling them though. If anything it might prepare them. Taking a deep breath, she started typing again.

Kari - We have help. I was in Primary Village today. We're expecting twenty-four new Digidestined soon.

Michael - Kari, that could be months from now!

Kari - No. We've already got three of them here, in TK's apartment. And the others should be here soon.

Rosa - How do you know who they are?

Kari - They're our families.

_-Living Room-_

"My parents are out of town until tomorrow night," Jim explained as he came back from the kitchen. "Doctor's convention. And there was no answer at Ken's place. I'll try again later."

"Okay. Yolei's sisters won't be home until after ten, so they'll be coming by later. I've got her parents and brother on their way. And Cody's mom should be here any second," TK said just before there was a knock at the door. He got up to answer it, Hiroaki following closely.

Cody's mother stood out in the hall looking worried as she fiddled with the buttons on her blouse.

"TK, Hiro. What's going on? Kari told me yesterday that everyone was camping for the weekend."

"Well, um ...." TK tried to think up an excuse that would save them from getting in any real trouble with her.

"They're camping in the living room," his father said quickly, flashing Mrs. Hida with a charming smile.

She paid no attention to him and pushed past them both into the living room.

"Cody?" she whispered, kneeling down beside the couch he was curled up on. He turned his head to the sound of her voice, but didn't open his eyes. Armadillomon walked over to her and patted her leg sympathetically.

"What can I do?" she asked the men.

Hiroaki knelt down beside her and put a hand on her shoulder.

"TK and Kari are the only ones who haven't been changed. To get the others back to normal, they have to rescue a digimon." He waited for her to nod her understanding before going on. "The only way they can do that is if we go with them."

Kotomi Hida's eyes grew wide as she looked at the slightly older man. Her eyes wandered to TK and Jim and they both nodded in agreement.

"But ... how? How can we help th-_there_?"

"It seems the digiworld wants us to go." Jim stepped forward and held out his dark purple digivice for her to see. "We've been chosen as the new digidestined."

"Come with me," Hiroaki said and guided her to the master bedroom. As it had three times before, the computer screen glowed and released another beam of light. However Kotomi's eyes were glued to the hatching egg. The group emerged from the room a few minutes later with a tiny Tsubumon cradled in her arms.

Armadillomon grinned when he saw his younger form. "Well, that's four down. TK, when did you say Yolei's folks would be here?"

"Any minute," the teen answered as he started cleaning up the pizza boxes and paper plates from the previous night.

"Don't you have any food here?" Kotomi asked worriedly as she gently placed her digimon down on the floor beside Cody's.

"We do now. I just went shopping this morning."

She frowned and went into the kitchen to see for herself, and checked all of the baby supplies while she was at it. When she got back to the living room, TK had successfully tidied up the room and was sitting on the love seat with Kari, watching tv as they rocked their brothers. The three men now sat on the floor playing with their new digimon.

"I'll be back in a moment. I've got a casserole upstairs that I'd like you to have," she said as she made her way to the door.

"You don't have to-" Kari started.

"All you have is junk food. You need a real meal."

"There's nothing wrong with junk food," Veemon muttered. Kotomi shook her head at him as she walked out, letting Yolei's parents and older brother in as she did.

The Inoue's were called into the living room. Hawkmon greeted them at the entrance with Yolei with him. The infant was just beginning to wake up. He lifted her up as high as he could reach - which was only up the adults' waists - too afraid to fly with her.

All three stood in shocked silence, but her father was the first to recover, removing her from the digimon's wings and cradling her in his own arms.

"Leave it to 'Lei to get herself into this mess," Mantarou said from his father's side. His mother glared at him.

"This was _not_ your sister's fault. Was it Hawk?" Hana knelt down and ruffled the feathers on Hawkmon's head affectionally.

"No, ma'am. It wasn't anyone's fault."

"You've been taking care of her?" Mr. Inoue asked the three men, still seated on the floor with their digimon. All three pointed over to TK and Kari on the couch. He smiled at the teens. "Thank you. But is this permanent?"

Hawkmon answered for them and led the family to the bedroom to receive their digivices and digimon. They were just showing off their three new Pururumon to the gang when Kotomi came back with a large dish of cabbage casserole.

She smiled at the obviously happy family and brought the food into the kitchen. Hana followed her and came out a minute later holding a small slip of paper. She handed it to her son with her keys.

"Go to the store and get these things for us," she ordered, taking the digimon from his arms and setting it down beside her own identical one on the floor. As he left, she turned to the teens.

"You'll be needing some more formula soon. I've got him picking up more diapers, too." She took Yolei out of her husband's arms as the baby started to cry. "Anything else you need, you just let us know, okay?"

The group sat around the living room feeding the babies for the next twenty minutes before Kari's parents arrived behind Mantarou, helping him carry five plastic bags into the apartment. Thankfully her mother wasn't carrying anything breakable the in the bag she held, because it fell to the floor as she fainted into her husband's arms the minute she saw Kari feeding Tai.

Kari handed her brother off to Agumon as she went to lead her parents into TK's bedroom so her mother could lie down. While she was gone, the Inoue family started to get ready to leave.

"If it would help, we can take Yolei home with us," her father told TK as they gathered their coats.

"Actually, we can take Yolei and at least two more babies," Hana offered.

"Are you sure?" TK asked, astonished.

"Absolutely. Yolei and her sister are only a year apart. This wouldn't be much harder than taking care of them. And you two need a break."

"Well, Mimi's parents aren't going to be here for another day or so. And we haven't been able to reach Ken's yet."

"I wouldn't offer Ken up yet," said Jim, everyone turned to see him looking wearily at the fidgeting baby as it let out two short coughs. "I think he's sick," he said in answer to the questioning glances.

"Are you sure?" TK said.

"Well, no. But he was sneezing a couple of minutes ago. And if he _is_ sick, I don't think he should be around any of the other babies in case it's contagious."

"He's right," Hiroaki agreed and turned to look at his teenaged son. "Do you think you and Kari can handle him for the night?"

"Sure. But what about the others?"

"I'll be taking Matt with me. Kotomi, will you take Cody?"

"Of course," the woman said.

"I'll take Sora, then," Haruhiko said. "I can take her to her mother. Fill her in on everything." He turned to Jim. "You and Joe can stay with me tonight."

"Great. That just leaves three more," Hiroaki counted. "Kari's parents will probably be taking Tai. And Davis and Izzy's families said they'd be coming over tonight, didn't they." TK nodded. "Well, there you go." The adults didn't wait for a response as they started filling bags with baby supplies for the night and getting their boots and coats on.

"What's going on?" Kari asked her boyfriend as she came back from the bedroom without her parents.

"Ken's sick, so we're going to be looking after him while they take the others for the night."

"I'll be back in an hour or so with some medicine for him," Jim said when he was half-way out the door with his brother.

The sixteen year olds saw the adults out, then returned to the living room and started moving the seven baby digimon to the master bedroom to sleep. Biyomon and Wormmon followed them in to keep an eye on the little ones.

"Go check on your parents," TK said as they transported the last of the Pururumon into his mother's room. "I'll go heat up dinner."

Kari thanked him and went down the hall. She stood outside his closed bedroom door for a minute, bracing herself for the reactions she knew she'd be receiving when she filled her parents in on their roles in the latest battle.

**Author's Note:**

So, what did you think? Worth the wait? Only about twenty words shorter than my last chapter, so that's pretty good. I think the next one will be even bigger.

Anything you'd like to see in future chapters, just let me know. I have a few ideas, mostly concerning the fight with Cadetmon, so suggestions are much needed. Thanks.

-Lizzy


	6. Silent Night

**Author's Note:**

Okay, this chapter may be bad and have mistakes, but I was rushing to do a quick update for you all. Enjoy.

Chapter Seven

Kari slowly opened the door to TK's bedroom and carefully watched her parents. Her mother was sitting on the bed staring off into space, and her father was sitting on the desk chair opposite the bed. She noticed how he kept running his hand through his hair, a nervous habit for him.

She entered the room fully, but stood by the door, waiting for someone to say something.

"What happened?" said her mother quietly. Kari wasn't sure she wanted to tell them the truth, but she knew everyone would be in big trouble if she didn't.

"There's this digimon, Spetomon. He was blackmailed into turning Tai and the others into babies."

"But not you?" asked Mr. Kamiya.

"No, me and TK too. But we were late." She sat down on the foot of the bed. "There is, uh, something else you should know. You see, Spetomon can't turn everyone back until we help rescue his wife."

"How can you do that without the others?"

"We can't." She sighed. "But there are new digidestined that will be helping us. Twenty-four of them."

"That's amazing," Mrs. Kamiya said, seeming a little bit better as she took interest in the conversation.

"Yes. We've already found seven. That's sort of why I asked you to come here."

"What do we have to do with them?"

"You _are_ 'them.' The new digidestined are the families of the old ones." Kari waited for a sign of acknowledgement before continuing. All she got was stunned silence.

"How's that possible?" her father asked. Her mother nodded.

"We're not really sure. Maybe because you've helped us so many times over the years. The important thing-" she forced them to look at her before she went on "-is whether or not you can accept it."

The sat in silence for a few seconds and it struck Kari that they might not accept it, and then where would they all be? Could they really defeat Cadetmon without her parents' help? What would happen to Tai and the others?

Everyone was so lost in their own thoughts, that they didn't notice Gatomon and Agumon enter the room. Without saying a word, Gatomon jumped on the bed and sat in front of Kari's mother, while Agumon went to stand in front of her father.

Hesitantly, both adults looked up into the digimons' eyes. Agumon spoke first.

"You can help Tai get back to normal," he told the man. "The other may not be able to do it without you."

"But we'll have to fight, won't we?" Mrs. Kamiya said miserably. Gatomon put a paw on her hand.

"Not as much as you think. And what they do - what _you_ do - is not about the fighting."

"Then why is it every time Kari and Tai go into your world one or both of them come out injured?"

Kari looked at her father angrily. "First, that's a big exaggeration. Second, Tai and I chose this life, so any injuries we get because of it is not the fault of our digimon. And third, this could help Tai. I can't believe you'd actually have to think about it." She shook her head at them as she turned to leave the room.

"We're going to do it," her father said, making her pause and look at him. "There's no question about that. It's just ...."

"We're scared," his wife finished for him.

"There's nothing to be worried about," Agumon said confidently. "And you're not doing this alone. You'll have have thirty-four other digidestined to help you."

"Not to mention your digimon partners," Gatomon reminded them with a grin.

Kari was the first to notice the screen on TK's computer begin to glow. But before she had the chance to warn anyone, the digivice had already shot out and landed in her parents' hands.

"This is ... different," her father said as he looked at his light orange digivice. "This isn't like yours, is it?" She smiled and shook her head.

"They're the new model."

"Well, what now?" asked her mother.

"Your partners. Come on."

Kari led them to the other bedroom where Biyomon and Wormmon were keeping watch over the seventeen digieggs and seven newborn digimon. The adults were immediately drawn to the two nearest eggs that started rattling as they got closer. When they hatched, a Botamon and YukimiBotamon were left sitting on the bed. Agumon and Gatomon shared knowing looks.

The cat-like creature stepped forward and took the little white ball of fluff in her paws and brought her closer to Yuuko, Kari's mother.

"This is YukimiBotamon," she told the woman, placing the baby in her hands. "In time, she'll end up looking like me."

Agumon took the black ball of fluff and held it up to Susumi. "And this is Botamon. He'll grow up to be an Agumon like me."

Both adults seemed mesmerized by their partners and studied them carefully. TK knocked softly on the door then and peeked in. He smiled at the scene.

"Dinner's ready. Are you two staying to eat?"

Yuuko and Susumi nodded. They refused to put down their digimon as they ate Mrs. Hida's casserole. And Kari could've sworn she saw them both giving bites of the dish to the babies throughout the meal.

Afterwards, they agreed to take Tai home with them, but made no move to put the digimon down. Kari managed to hold off laughing until they were out of the apartment.

"I'm glad that's sorted out," Agumon said, reclining on the couch beside Gabumon and flicking through channels. When he couldn't find anything he liked, he settled for watching Gomamon and Palmon playing games before passing out like most of the digimon.

"I'm going to take Ken into my room, so he doesn't infect the others," TK said, leaving Kari to answer the door when someone knocked a minute later. Jim handed her a small bag when she opened the door.

"It's the medicine for Ken. Just put mix a couple of drops into his bottles. It should stop the coughing and help with the sneezing." He wished her luck and then ran off down the hall to catch the elevator that Izzy's parents were just coming out of, with Davis' right behind them.

Kari groaned as she saw them all coming, but didn't have enough time to call for TK's help. Gatomon heard her and joined her at the door. Kari smiled at the cat and handed her the bag of medicine to take to TK.

"Oh, Kari, I didn't know you were here." Mrs. Izumi stepped forward and hugged her. Kari put on a smile for the woman. When she was let go, she stepped aside so the two couples could enter the apartment. Only when they were past her did she notice Jun trailing behind them, looking bored.

"Is everything all right with Davis?" Mrs. Motomiya asked worriedly.

"He's perfectly healthy. And so is Izzy," the teen added quickly. "But we did have a little problem in the digital world yesterday. TK and I are working on a solution, but we're going to need your help."

Tentomon and Veemon came out from the living room and greeted their partners' families. Kari grinned at them.

"They're going to explain everything. I have to go help TK with something," she told the humans, slipping past them and heading towards the bedrooms.

TK was lying on his bed, leaning against the headboard while he fed Ken when Kari walked in. She smiled as she watched him starting to fall asleep. As carefully as she could without waking either of them, she took the baby from her boyfriend's arms and sat down on the desk chair with him in her arms.

Kari sat there for a few minutes enjoying the peace and quiet. It seemed odd, after the events of the past two days, to be relaxing and not feeling the least bit worried about anything - or anyone.

Gatomon eventually peeked her head in and motioned for Kari to come out. She nodded, placing the baby beside TK on the bed and following her digimon back into the living room.

The Izumi's and Motomiya's were now seated around the room. Izzy and Davis' mothers were cooing over their babies. Jun rolled her eyes at them from where she stood by the door to the dining room. A small Chibomon was nestled in her arms. The men were sitting on the floor chatting with some digimon over the two Pabumon and two more Chibomon. Everyone seemed to be completely fine with the situation and Kari breathed a sigh of relief. Jun noticed her and walked over.

"They filled us in," she said, pointing to the digimon. "Do you really think you can turn them back?"

"If we can help save Spetomon's wife, yes. But he can't do it until then."

The older teen nodded. "How long do we have to wait?"

"These guys will have to grow up a bit before we can do anything." Kari brushed a finger against the Chibomon's cheek. It pushed into her touch. "Hopefully no more than a week though."

Jun nodded again and turned away as her mother called her name.

"We should go," Mrs. Motomiya said when she'd gotten the attention of both girls. "Do you need us to take Davis?"

"If you can. Ken's sick and we don't want any of the others to catch his cold."

"Of course. Come on, Yori," she said to her husband, pulling him up from the floor. He reluctantly said goodbye to Mr. Izumi and the digimon before following his wife and daughter out the door. The Izumi's left shortly after.

Kari had just started bringing the five baby digimon into the master bedroom again when TK came out of his own room, rubbing his eyes tiredly.

"Is everyone gone?" he asked, poking his head into the kitchen to see if they were hiding in there.

"Yep. We've finally got the apartment all to ourselves." Kari grinned at him.

"As if," Gatomon said, walking past her. She was the only digimon awake now, but she quickly jumped onto the back of the couch, curled into a ball and fell asleep.

TK glared at the cat and then slowly surveyed the room, watching all the digimon passed out all over the floor and couches. He turned to Kari, frowning.

"Why is it they get to go to bed but we don't?" he asked miserably.

"I'm not sure, but I think we should try. Mimi's parents might be coming tomorrow and I'd rather get some rest before I have to break the news to them."

The teens finished cleaning up the living room, turned off all the lights, and made sure the front door was locked before retiring to TK's room again. They decided to switch positions for the night, TK taking the bed with Ken, and Kari sleeping on the floor. The last time either of them looked at the clock, it was eight-thirty.

---

**12:07 a.m.**

Kari bolted upright at the crying that was filling the room. As her eyes adjusted to the dark, she realized her head had come dangerously close to hitting the corner of TK's desk. Scowling, she stood up and stumbled around the bed to the side Ken was on.

"TK?" She got no reply as she picked up the wailing infant and rocked him gently. "TK, are you awake?" As Ken quieted down, she heard TK's snoring from the other side of the bed. She glared at his silhouette as she crossed the room and slipped out into the hall with the baby. This would be the third time that night that Ken had woken her up, but not TK.

Everyone was still asleep in the living room when she passed through to the dining room. She quickly changed the baby and was heading back to the bedroom when someone knocked on the door. Ken whimpered in her arms. Sighing, she turned around and headed back to the living room and answered the door.

She must have looked dreadful, she realized when she opened the door, because Hiroaki took a step back when he saw her.

"Everything all right?" he asked, shouting a little over the sound of the wailing infant in his arms. Kari didn't have the heart to complain we he looked far worse.

"What's wrong?" she asked as he came in. She groaned as Matt's crying woke Ken again and he started up as well.

"I think he's missing TK. He's been off and on all night, but this time I haven't been able to get him to stop," the older man said, bouncing the baby slightly. They turned at the sound of a door opening and saw TK heading their way.

"What's goin' on, dad?" he asked sleepily.

Hiroaki silently handed the baby to TK. Matt immediately stopped crying when he was in his brother's arms. The teen looked up at his father questioningly.

"He was always like this the first time around, too," said the older man. "In the day he was fine, but during the night he only wanted your mother.

TK smirked and rocked his brother gently, obviously a little pleased. Kari rolled her eyes at him as she got Ken back to sleep.

"Do you want coffee?" she asked the men, heading toward the kitchen.

"If you don't mind. I'll head out again after that," Hiroaki said, following her.

"I'm going to head back to bed," TK said. "See you tomorrow." The others watched him go back down the hall, Kari glaring. Hiroaki chuckled at her.

"Don't be too hard on him," he said, putting an arm around her shoulders. "Or at least, don't make him suffer too much."

Kari laughed and handed Ken to him so she could put the coffee machine on. "So what was TK like when he was a baby?" she asked, now fully awake.

"Much more easy going. Like this one." He smiled at the sleeping Ken. "Didn't mind me like Matt did. Made friends quickly too. Matt was more a loner, even then." He frowned suddenly. "I wasn't around much after that. We divorced just before TK's second birthday."

Kari bit her lip. She knew the divorce was a sore subject for the brothers, and could just imagine what it was like for their parents. Hiroaki caught her looking at him carefully and smiled half-heartedly.

"I do regret it," he admitted, looking down at the baby again.

"The divorce?"

"Actually I was talking about not being there for TK. But, yes. I regret the divorce, too."

The teen busied herself with pouring the coffee into two mugs and getting the cream and sugar out. When she finally sat down at the table with everything, she caught him looking at her and raised an eyebrow.

"What?" she asked, mixing cream into her cup.

"You're trying very hard not to ask me something," he said, and smirked when she looked back down at the table.

"I was just wondering-" he nodded for her to continue. "-why you got divorced."

"I was a workaholic," he answered simply. "Nancy thought I didn't spend enough time with the boys. She was right. Of course I only worked more when she was gone."

Ken stirred in his sleep and let out a couple of short coughs. Kari silently got up and fixed him a bottle, remembering to put in the drops of medicine. She made to take him out of Hiroaki's arms, but he only shook his head and took the bottle from her and started to feed the baby.

They didn't touch on the subject of Hiroaki's marriage again. They spent a half-hour drinking their coffees while he told her stories about TK and Matt when they were kids. And when Ken had fallen asleep again, Hiro reluctantly gave him back to Kari, thanked her for the coffee and left.

---

**8:13 a.m. **

TK felt something hit his leg lightly and groaned. He was still tired and really wanted to sleep for another three or four hours. He rolled away from whatever the thing was and tried to go back to sleep.

The door creaked open a couple of minutes later, but he didn't move or even open his eyes.

"Is he still asleep?" he heard Gomamon ask.

"Looks like it. But Matt's awake," Patamon whispered. TK could feel the beat of the little bat-creature's wings beside him.

'Right. Matt,' the boy thought slowly. Everything from the night before was still a little fuzzy. 'He was kicking me.'

"I'll go get Gatomon," Gomamon said.

TK yawned and sat up. "Don't," he said. "I'm up. You two go back to the living room. I - we'll be there in a minute."

The two digimon did as they were told and left the room quietly. TK rubbed his eyes and yawned again. Glancing at the bedside clock, he was a little surprised by the time. He'd slept through most of the night and had only been woken twice. Once when his father had come over, and around four when Matt wanted a bottle.

Beside him, the baby kicked the sheets to get his attention, and smiled toothlessly when he looked over. The older boy shook his head as he stood up and stretched. He quickly threw on a t-shirt before picking up his baby brother and heading out into the living room.

Most of the digimon were still asleep there. TK saw Patamon and Gomamon in the kitchen, watching as Gatomon stood on a step stool at the counter. He silently prayed that she wasn't making a big mess in there. He scanned the room for a minute, taking in the sight of an actual peaceful morning. Kari was curled up on the loveseat with Ken resting in her arms. He frowned slightly, realizing he hadn't been much of a help to her during the night.

While thinking of a way to make it up to his girlfriend, he continued on his way to the dining room to change Matt. Gabumon came in half-way through and put a warm bottle on the table for him.

"Sleep well?" the digimon asked, watching him work.

"Better than Kari did, I'm guessing." Gabumon nodded.

"Ken didn't sleep that much last night."

TK didn't say anything more about it, but asked the digimon to feed Matt when he was done.

Back in the living room, TK slowly crept over to Kari and placed a throw blanket on her. It had snowed again during the night, making the apartment even colder. When she didn't stir, he gently took Ken from her and walked back to the dining room.

"Breakfast is ready," Gatomon said, coming out of the kitchen with a large platter of eggs and pancakes.

TK smiled at her. "Thanks, Gatomon. Try not to wake Kari up though, okay? Let her sleep for a couple more hours."

The cat nodded and brought the food into the other room for the digimon to eat. Gabumon followed her with Matt.

When he was done with Ken, TK sat alone at the kitchen table, feeding his a bottle with the medicine stirred in.

"Not much longer now," he said to Ken, mostly just thinking out loud. "We'll get you back to normal soon. We just need to figure out how we can get those new digimon to digivolve quickly." The baby stared up at him silently.

The kitchen phone rang then and TK jumped up to get it before it woke Kari.

"Takaishi residence," he said into the phone.

"TK? This is Mrs. Ichijouji. Your friend called yesterday and asked us to come to your apartment."

"Oh, hello. Yes, he did."

"We were out shopping yesterday and didn't get back 'til late. Do you still need us to come over?"

"If you're able to. It's about Ken."

"Oh, we'll be there as soon as possible."

TK hung up the phone and looked down at Ken, still drinking his formula.

"Do you think they're going to be okay with everything?" he asked, sighing when he realized he was talking to a baby.

"TK, Kari's D-Terminal just went off," Patamon said, flying into the room with the miniature computer in it's tiny paws. He placed it on the kitchen table. TK opened it and read the message, looking grim.

"It's a message from Sonya. She needs our help in the digiworld."

"Well, let's go," the digimon said urgently.

They went back into the living room and filled the others in on the situation.

"Ken's parents are on their way over. Watch the kids until they get here and then wake Kari up, all right?" TK asked. The digimon all agreed so he grabbed his own D-Terminal and digivice and headed to his bedroom with Patamon.

They found themselves standing in three feet of snow seconds later, with a blizzard blocking their vision.

"Can you see anything?" TK asked.

"No, but I think I hear something." Patamon quickly Armour Digivolved to Pegasusmon and told TK to get on his back.

He flew them a hundred feet or so, and then landed. TK got off and tried to see through the snow, but could make out anything.

"Are you sure you heard something?"

"Yes. I'm positive." The horse-creature looked around too and walked a little ahead of his partner until his hoof hit something buried in the snow. "TK, over here." He instructed TK to dig where he stood, and they soon uncovered a pink-striped digiegg.

"What's a digiegg doing all the way out here?" TK wondered out loud, pulling his jacket around the egg to keep it warm.

"Maybe it's not just any egg. Spetomon is able to de-age digimon as well as humans. Perhaps he got to Sonya before we did."

"Oh, very good, horsey," said a female voice from behind them. TK and Pegasusmon turned to look, but still couldn't see anything.

Suddenly a tall and mean-looking creature came into their view. They recognized it as Spetomon with one of Hallumon's illusions making him look evil.

Another digimon stepped up beside him. This one was more humanoid, looking somewhat like a woman in a military uniform. But her face was covered in a helmet, she wore thigh-high clunky boots with spikes running up the sides, and she was shorter than the average woman. The thing that caught TK's eye, however, was the tiny baby curled up in her arms.

"That is indeed your friend Snimon. Too bad he didn't just leave us alone and let Spetomon de-age the girl."

"Give her to me," TK demanded.

"I don't think so." She grinned at him, her mouth and eyes the only things visible behind her helmet. "I'll tell you what. Since you want this brat so bad, I'll let you have her, if you complete a little challenge."

"And if we lose?" Pegasusmon asked.

"Then I keep the girl, her egg, and you two as well." Cadetmon glanced up at Spetomon with the same grin. "Once you're in the same shape as they are, of course."

**Author's Note:**

Yeah, I know. Cliffhangers = bad. I couldn't help myself.

Anyway, I have a few assignments for reviewers this week.

I didn't originally plan on doing new crests for the new digidestined, but I started researching this week and it looks like I'm going to go ahead with them anyway. So, if you've got any ideas on personality traits that could work as crests - good and bad - please send them to me.

Also, I want to know what you guys think should happen in the next chapters. Should I have TK and Pegasusmon lose and get de-aged as well? Or should Kari come to rescue them and she gets hit instead? I still have to write the reactions of Mimi, Ken and Joe's parents - any suggestions on that?

Any feedback is appreciated. Have a great week everyone.

-Lizzy ^_^


	7. Change of Plans

**Author's Note:**

I seriously considered holding this chapter hostage until someone reviewed. Maybe I'll do that to the next chapter...

Still not sure I'm making a good choice with what happens in this chapter, but at least it boosted the word count a bit.

Chapter Eight

TK and Pegasusmon shared a look. If it weren't for the baby still held in Cadetmon's arms, they wouldn't have thought twice about accepting her challenge. As it was, they had no other choice but to go along with the challenge and hope that they weren't the only ones Sonya had called for help.

"What's this challenge, then?" TK asked. His grip on the digiegg tightened.

"You two are going to fight off some friends of mine. This should be easy for someone as experienced as you two." She giggled lightly. Waving a hand to her right, three digimon appeared from under the piles of snow.

"Pengmon," Pegasusmon whispered. But to TK they only looked like oversized penguins with metal beaks.

The Pengmon waddled forward and looked to Cadetmon. If she gave them a signal to start attacking, TK never saw it before he found himself in the middle of an ice storm. Shards of ice, sharp as glass, started pouring down on the duo.

"Star Shower!" Pegasusmon shouted, sending clusters of stars from his wings at the enemies. It did little to stop them, but they changed attacks as one and the snow already flying around TK and Pegasusmon in the blizzard started to swirl unnaturally around them, blocking everything from view again.

"Mane Wind!" The winged horse send needles spraying blindly out into the air. He circled TK, unable to tell exactly where the Pengmon were, but hoping that they were still in firing range.

"Be careful. Sonya's still out there," TK reminded him just before the ice shards started to fall again.

An idea hit Pegasusmon as he watched the ice, using his wings to cover TK and the egg. If there were three Pengmon, one of them had to be taking care of the ice while the other two worked on the blizzard. If he could reverse that, he might have a chance of hitting one of them. He felt an icicle pierce the back of his neck and let out a low moan.

Angry and now in a lot of pain, the horse let out three green beams into the storm. The ice suddenly stopped and the snow hurricane faltered for a few seconds, until Cadetmon ordered the two remaining Pengmon to continue with their job, but it was long enough for Pegasusmon to see exactly where they were standing and used Mane Wind on them again.

TK grinned as he watched the last two Pengmon fall into the snow with needles sticking out from all over their six-foot bodies. When Cadetmon let out a growl, he turned to face her again.

"Give us the baby," he ordered her. She scowled at him.

"You little menace. There's no way you're getting this child now. Spetomon-" she turned to look at the gigantic creature again, "-do it!"

"But Cadetmon-" he tried to argue.

"Do it or the child dies, and your precious Ennamon will follow shortly." TO prove her point, Cadetmon took a dagger from behind her back and pointed it at Sonya's tiny stomach.

Spetomon nodded quickly, stepping forward and giving TK and Pegasusmon an apologetic look before starting the chanting.

Pegasusmon tried to move, do take TK away from there, but he found himself glued to the spot. And he didn't want to hurt the attacking digimon for fear that he wouldn't be able to help his friends later on. So the duo stood there for a few seconds while the bright light began to surround them.

TK could feel himself shrinking and shrinking. The egg slipped from his hands, but he was unable to move to catch it. He wondered vaguely how Pegasusmon was doing. The light was too bright to see even right beside him where he knew his partner was standing.

Suddenly the light stopped. TK fell forward, landing on his stomach with his arms spread out in front of him in the snow, the only things keeping his head from being buried. He felt too weak to move, to look up and see what had happened. Straining to hear, he realized the chanting had stopped.

"TK!" Kari's voice filled his head, sounding close.

"Kari?" he called lightly. He didn't like the sound of his voice - it wasn't quite right. It was ... childish.

He felt himself being rolled over in the snow. Looking up, he saw Kari kneeling over him, looking much larger than he remembered. He frowned as he realized he was the one who had changed.

"How bad do I look?" he asked.

Kari smiled. "What makes you think you look bad?"

"I've seen pictures of when I was a kid," he said simply and tried to look over her shoulder to see what had happened to Cadetmon. Kari helped him stand up.

Angewomon was standing where Cadetmon had been. She was holding Sonya now. Spetomon was gone as well. TK looked to the left to see Anna and Yuri instructing their digimon to dispose of the unconscious Pengmon.

"Pegasusmon?" he said quietly.

"Beside you," said a tiny voice. He turned to his right and found Tokomon there.

"Cadetmon got away," Kari said sadly. "She was pulling Spetomon along. But we'll go to him later and get him to turn you back."

"Is he hurt?" Angewomon asked as she came closer to the pair.

"I'm fine," TK answered, hissing in pain as Kari pulling a shard of ice from the back of his leg.

"I'll get the rest of these out when we get home," she said, eyeing the three other shards angrily.

They spent a few more minutes there, handing off Sonya and her digiegg to Anna and Yuri and promising them that they'd be the first to know when she could be cured. When the Russians had left, Kari picked TK up, mindful of the ice sticking out of his back, and started walking ahead of Gatomon, who had Tokomon in her arms.

They were home in minutes, standing in TK's room and trying to get warm.

Gatomon took Tokomon out into the living room while Kari brought TK into the bathroom and gently took the ice out of his back and helped him get his jacket and shoes off before carrying him into the next room, despite his complaints.

"Jim, is Ken all right?" Kari called as they got to the living room.

Jim was sitting on the couch bouncing his digimon on his knee. He didn't look up when they entered. Kari waved to Ken's parents who were on the loveseat with their son and two tiny Leafmon.

"Yeah, he's sounding a lot better. I'd continue with the medicine for another day or so, though."

"Good. I've got a new patient for you." Jim looked up then and smirked when he saw TK.

"I already told you, I'm fine," the toddler protested.

"He's got some cuts on his back and leg," Kari told Jim as she sat down beside him with TK in her lap. She had to tighten her grip as he tried to slide off.

"Just flesh wounds. Nothing to worry about," the twenty-four year old assured her as he placed bandages over each cut.

"Any idea how old he's supposed to be?" Tokomon asked from his position on the coffee table.

"About three, but I'm no expert."

The door to the master bedroom opened then and the group listened to Hiroaki and Haruhiko come out.

"I'm telling you, mine's going to digivolve first," Haruhiko said.

"Oh, really? And why's that?"

"Well, obviously, because I've studied digimon I understand them better than you. Therefore I have the knowledge that will help this little guy grow." As the men came into view, Kari saw Sora's father gently pat the leafy head of his Nyokimon. Her mother walked behind them, ignoring both as she rocked Sora. She had a tiny Nyokimon on her shoulder.

"Yeah? Well mine's older," Hiroaki argued.

"Only by an hour. And it doesn't make a difference."

Jim walked over and put a hand between the older men. "All right, guys. Let's try not to get into a fight, okay?"

"I was going to suggest a bet, actually," Hiroaki said, grinning.

"Dad, you can't be serious!" TK said, still reluctantly sitting on Kari's lap. His father turned, still grinning, and looked at his son for a few seconds before sighing.

"What the hell happened to you?"

"Same thing as him," TK nodded his head in his brother's direction. "Only the process was interrupted half-way through."

"I thought Spetomon was going to leave you two alone," Haruhiko said as he placed his digimon down on the carpet beside the two Leafmon that were now playing there as their partners took an interest in the conversation.

"It wasn't his fault. Cadetmon was there as well and forced him to do it," Kari explained. Just then, Gatomon came running out of TK's room.

"Kari, Gennai's waiting in the chatroom for you. I already filled him in on everything."

Kari gently placed TK down on the couch as she got up. She thanked the cat and headed to the bedroom again.

TK scowled at being put on the couch and scrambled to get down and follow his girlfriend, but Hiroaki came and picked him up before his fell off.

"Put me down," the toddler ordered. "I have to go with Kari."

"I think she's got it covered, kid," Jim said, returning to his own digimon.

-The Bedroom-

Gennai - I've spoken to Hallumon about what happened. It seems Spetomon has yet to return to the cave since his run-in with TK.

Blonde BB - Does she have any idea when he'll be back? We can come by so he can return TK to normal.

Gennai - I'm afraid she has no idea. But she made it very clear that he won't be able to do it, for fear that Cadetmon will find out.

Blonde BB - But I need TK to stop her.

Gennai - From what I hear, you'll have more than enough help once you train those twenty-four new digidestined.

Blonde BB - Train them? How am I supposed to do that?

Gennai - Simple. Bring them here, into the digiworld. Let them experience everything for themselves. All the better if they run into trouble, then their digimon will digivolve faster.

Blonde BB - Gennai, you don't know these people. Some of them ... they're not made to survive in your world.

Gennai - My dear, I would have said the same thing about several of you, eight years ago. And you've all exceeded my expectations. Trust me. Bring them here.

Blonde BB - All right. I'll try to take some in tonight. I can't take them all at once though. Someone will need to stay and take care of the babies.

Gennai - There's a simple solution to that as well. Trust the other digimon to look after them. The ten whose partners cannot fight will be essentially useless here except for actual training sessions in their rookie forms. Without their partners, they cannot digivolve.

Blonde BB - Okay. I'll try to get everyone together, then. But it will be difficult.

Gennai - One last thing. Hallumon said that Spetomon was only interrupted during a de-aging twice. Both times the digimon began acting their age very quickly.

Blonde BB - What do you mean?

Gennai - You say TK is now three years old. If Hallumon is right, he's going to be acting like a child soon, unfortunate as it may be. I'm sure he will retain his adult memory and some traits, but if he stays this way for a long while, he'll most likely become more and more childish.

Blonde BB - He's not going to like that.

Gennai - No. I might suggest that you don't let him come back to the digiworld until he's to be returned to normal though. I suppose this depends on what you think he's capable of, but I don't think it would be wise to subject a child to the fighting you'll be doing. But, as I said, this is your decision.

Kari thanked him for the information and they both logged off. When she returned to the living room, Yolei's parents and brother had returned, with her two sisters tagging along. The sisters greeted the younger girl as they past by her on the way to receive their digimon with Hawkmon leading the way.

"What did Gennai say?" TK asked hopefully from where he sat on the couch beside his father and brother. Kari bit her lip, not sure if she should tell him that he wouldn't be back to normal for a week or so.

"He said I should bring everyone there tonight." She looked down at Veemon. "Except you guys. You'll have to stay with the babies." The digimon all nodded understandingly.

"So Spetomon will turn me back then?" TK was grinning at Kari and it broke her heart to have to tell him the news.

"No. You can't come tonight." She looked down at the floor to avoid his heartbroken face. "Gennai and I think it would be best if you stayed here until we've fixed things."

"You mean ... 'til you've defeated Cadetmon?" She nodded. "Oh. Okay."

"Well, how soon until we leave, then?" Mr. Ichijouji asked excitedly.

"I think we should wait until the others arrive. I'd like as many of us to go as possible," Kari told them. She continued to avoid TK's eye for fear she'd cave and let him come.

---

Davis' family was the last to arrive that afternoon, just after lunch. The others were already crammed into TK's small apartment. So much so, that all the digimon had retreated to the master room long before the Motomiya's arrived.

"Is everyone ready to go?" Kari asked them. Everyone was seated around the living room and dining room with the babies. One by one they nodded, excited grins on their faces - for most, anyway. There were still several who seemed nervous.

TK stayed behind in the living room with the babies as Kari led the adults down the hall. After a couple of seconds, he couldn't stand it any longer and he ran to catch up.

The line to the computer continued out into the hallway and was quickly getting shorter. TK finally managed to reach his room when it was only Kari, the Ichijouji's and his father left. He stood silently at the door and watched Kari usher Ken's parents into the digital world with their Leafmon. When they were gone, she turned to help Hiroaki and noticed TK watching them.

Smiling, she took his D-Terminal from the pocket of his jacket, now resting on the back of his desk chair, and brought it to him.

"Keep it close," she told him. "We'll keep in contact."

"Let me go with you," he pleaded again.

Hiroaki intervened before Kari could say yes.

"I'm going to stay here," he said, pushing her back to the computer.

"What? Why?"

"I was just thinking, Mimi or Joe's parents could come early, and there wouldn't be anyone to answer the door." He smiled at her. "Go on. I'll go next time."

She gave him a strange look, but nodded anyway. After last goodbyes, she held her digivice up to the screen and disappeared. Hiroaki turned around, kneeling down to be on eye-level with his son.

"Let me go," TK demanded, crossing his arms over his chest.

The older man smirked. "I don't think so." And he took the D-Terminal from TK, and slipped it in his own pocket. "Come on. Let's watch some tv."

He left the room, turning back when he realized TK wasn't following him. The toddler was still standing in the doorway, arms folded and looking angry.

"I'm going."

Hiroaki sighed and knelt down again. "TK, it's just too dangerous."

"I belong there, with them."

"Maybe, when you're back to normal. But right now you could get hurt."

"I'll have Tokomon with me."

"And how much good is he going to do you if you come across something really bad?"

It was times like this TK wished his dad didn't know so much about the digital world. He let his arms fall and looked down at the floor, completely defeated. And though he tried to hide the tear that escaped out of the corner of his eye against his will, he guessed his dad saw it anyway when he picked him up and brought him into the bedroom again.

"What's going on?" the toddler asked when he was put down on the bed.

"You're taking a nap," his father stated simply.

"No, I'm not." TK tried and failed to get off the bed. "I'm not a kid."

"Really?" Hiroaki stood back and smirked. "Because you definitely look like one. And you're acting like one, too."

The toddler glared up at him. "What?"

"You used to get cranky around lunch. So you always had a nap afterwards." He gently pushed TK into a lying position and covered him with the blanket. "And I'm willing to bet that this curse affected more than your appearances, like it did with your brother. So go to sleep."

When the boy still glared at him, Hiroaki rolled his eyes.

"At least try? I'll wake you up in an hour, I promise." TK seemed satisfied with that as he slowly closed his eyes. His father smiled and left the room.

The toddler was close to falling asleep when he felt something jump on the bed. He looked to the foot of the bed and found Tokomon there. The creature smiled and walked up to sit on the unused pillow.

"I wish we could join the others," the digimon said, lying down and closing his eyes. "I'm bored here."

"Why can't we?" TK whispered, now feeling wide awake. "My digivice is in my jacket, and dad won't find out 'til later."

Tokomon looked at him excitedly. "And we could probably catch up to the others if we hurry."

The partners quickly scrambled off the bed and went over to the desk. TK rummaged through all the pockets on his jacket before he pulled out his digivice, he then tossed the jacket into the corner of the room, on top of his shoes. The coat would be useless to him with the tears in the back the ice had made earlier, and the shoes were still soggy from the snow.

"Ready to go?" he asked his digimon. The white creature jumped into his arms, and they were off.

The pair looked around them for any sign of the others, but all they saw were trees. They glanced at each other worriedly before setting off.

"Kari? Jim?" TK called loudly.

"Gatomon? Where are you?" Tokomon joined in.

They continued like this for about fifteen minutes before they finally got a reply.

"TK? Is that you?" Kari's voice rang out from behind a group of trees in front of the pair. "TK, help me."

"Kari, we're coming!" The toddler and his digimon ran towards the voice, stumbling along the way. When they finally got around the trees, they found Kari sitting alone on the ground, rubbing her ankle.

"What happened?" TK asked as he came closer to her.

"I tripped over those rocks and hurt my ankle." She pointed at a couple of rocks buried deep in the ground.

"What happened to the others?"

"I told them to go ahead. We were getting a signal on the digivices, and I was afraid it was someone who needed our help."

"Gatomon left you too?" Tokomon said, giving her a confused look as he joined TK.

"Yes. I told her to go with them."

"That's strange. Gatomon should know better than to leave you alone and injured."

Kari looked angrily at the digimon. "I already told you, she was following my orders," she growled.

"Okay, take it easy," TK said, staring at the teen strangely. "Tokomon didn't mean anything by it."

"Yeah. I just meant that it's strange behavior for Gatomon."

"Strange behavior? And I suppose letting a baby go through this forest alone is normal?"

"I'm not a baby, Kari," TK said angrily.

"Could have fooled me."

There was something in the girl's eyes as she said it that scared Tokomon. He put his body between her and TK and growled at her.

"Tokomon, what's wrong?"

"That's not Kari," he said, and was proven right when the girl morphed into a Bakemon right in front of them and started to attack.

While TK tried to run away, Tokomon stood up to the bigger digimon.

"Bubble Blow!" The acid bubbles did nothing to stop the Bakemon from coming closer and continuing his attack.

"TK!"

The toddler looked up to see Hiroaki running towards him with the Poyomon perched on his shoulder. The baby digimon jumped down just as TK ran into his father's arms.

"Bubble Blow!" The Poyomon joined in the battle when Tokomon was thrown to the ground. Again, the acid bubbles did little to the Bakemon.

"Dad, your digivice." Hiroaki looked puzzled for a moment before pulling it from his pocket. The symbol at the top, his crest, was already glowing and an image of his Poyomon was blinking on the screen.

"Poyomon digivolve to ... Tokomon!" The little white creature bore his many teeth at his opponent.

"Oh, I'm really scared now," the Bakemon taunted.

Hiroaki stared in awe as his new Tokomon joined TK's and they began to tag-team the attacking digimon.

"Bubble Blow!" they said together. This time the bubbles had more of an effect, pushing the Bakemon a few feet away. They didn't give him a chance to attack before sending more bubbles his way. After three more tries of this, the Bakemon floated away and the Tokomon returned to their partners.

"That was ... amazing," Hiroaki said, picking up his digimon.

"You're welcome," TK said, grinning up at him.

"What?"

"If I didn't come here, Poyomon wouldn't have digivolved, and you might not have won the bet with Sora's dad."

His father smirked. "All right, you're off the hook for now. Let's just catch up with the others. Which way should we go?"

"Digivices," the Tokomon said, and the men both reached for them. TK, being more experienced with his, was able to find a signal first.

"This way," he said, going ahead with Tokomon in the direction he was pointing.

His father shrugged at his own Tokomon as they began to follow the boy.

**Author's Note:**

Opinions and suggestions are still appreciated.

An image of the crests with digivices, and a list of the new digidestined and their digimon and crests will be up sometime next week. I'll let you know in the next chapter. Although I could still use some help coming up with new crests.

Thanks, and happy weekend,

Lizzy


	8. Gone!

**Author's Note:**

Aero Angemon & AngelOfLight04: Thank you both for your quick reviews. I'm glad you're liking the story. =)

And thank you to everyone who's been adding Oh, Baby! to story alerts. You've all made me very happy.

Chapter Nine

"Are you sure your friend Jedi told you to go this way?"

Kari glanced at her mother worriedly. They'd been walking through the forest for an hour already without running into any digimon, friendly or otherwise. But Mrs. Kamiya wasn't used to all the walking.

"His name is _Gennai_. And we're almost there," she assured her mother. Most of these forests looked all the same to Kari, even after eight years, but Gatomon's keen senses told her exactly where they were heading, and the teen was a little relieved to know Gennai had found a safe place for them to train after all.

She was just in the middle of deciding whether or not to stop for a break when nineteen digivices went off at the same time.

"What's going on?" Izzy's father asked above the beeping noise.

Kari looked down at her digivice and frowned. "Another digidestined."

"Where?" Everyone began looking around them.

"Behind us."

Thirty-eight humans and digimon turned around in time to see TK and Hiroaki running towards them with two Tokomon bouncing ahead of them.

"TK, what are you doing here?" Kari yelled as they got closer.

"I told him he could come along. And we haven't run into much trouble so far," Hiro explained to her, hoping she wouldn't ask about the trouble they _had___run into.

Kari wanted to tell them to turn around and go back to the apartment when Gatomon pointed out something she'd missed.

"Poyomon digivolved," the feline said, looking down at the Tokomon.

Hiroaki smiled and looked over at Sora's father. "Yes, he did."

"So, where are we going?" TK asked before Kari had a chance to say a word. He smirked when she glared at him.

"Primary Village. Gennai sent me a message saying we'd be training there."

The group continued walking for another fifteen minutes or so when Gatomon stopped in her tracks and started sniffing the air.

"What's wrong?" Kari asked.

"Something's not right. We were just here yesterday and it was fine. But today..." She was interrupted by several screams from up ahead.

The group started to run, Kari taking the lead and TK somehow managing to keep up with her, despite his shorter legs. They stopped when they broke through the last trees that covered Primary Village from view. They stood there, half still in the forest, half in the clearing, all staring in horror at the chaos before them.

Three Tyrannomon, four Monochromon, and six Gizamon were wreaking havoc on the village. Setting fire to the towering colorful blocks, upending the wooden cribs, eating the piles of food that had been set aside for the babies.

In one area, they saw Elecmon tied to a tree and three more digimon firing attacks at him. Five Pengmon formed a conveyer line, taking all the eggs and screaming baby digimon out of the clearing. None of them took notice of the digidestined as they crept back into the forest to strategize.

"Gatomon, we need you," Kari said to her partner, holding up her digivice again. The cat nodded smugly and digivolved to Angewomon.

"I can help too," said TK's Tokomon. It quickly digivolved to Patamon, and continued on to Angemon. The other Tokomon stared at him in awe.

Several of the baby digimon bounced down from their partners' arms and gathered in front of the angels, ready to fight. Kari bit her lip as she looked at all of them. Even if they could all get to rookie level, she wasn't sure if it would be enough to stop the attack on Primary Village.

"Let's go," said Ken's father. "If we all fight, we can win." His Leafmon joined the others, looking just as determined.

With no real plan other than to fight for as long as they could, the digidestined moved back into the clearing, except for Hiroaki and TK. The older man held his son back until he others were out of earshot, then he knelt down and whispered to him.

"I want you to stay here," he said.

"What? No way."

"Angemon can fight without you. And I don't want you getting hurt out there. Please, TK."

The toddler didn't look pleased, but he nodded slightly. He stayed glued to the spot as his father turned around and ran after the others.

The two angels had gone ahead of the group. Angewomon easily took down the three digimon attacking Elecmon with her Celestial Arrows. And Angemon used his Hand of Fate and Angel Rod against the Pengmon, freeing all the eggs and babies. The pair then went after the Tyrannomon, Monochromon and Gizamon that were already being attacked by various in-training and rookie digimon from the other digidestined.

The humans themselves had split up. Several, led still by Ken's father, cheered on their partners. Sora's mother and her Biyomon had taken up the task of helping any of the babies and eggs. Jim was trying to tend to any of the digimon that had been hurt, his main focus was Elecmon who was too weak and beat up to fight.

"We're going to need water," Kari said worriedly as she watched the block towers continue to burn. She looked at the three Hawkmon. "There's a river near by. Do you think you can get some water to put out the fire?"

"We're on it, ma'am," one of them said and they flew off.

"Patamon!" Kari turned to see the little bat-creature fall into Hiroaki's arms after being hit.

"Is he going to be okay?" Hiro asked Jim as the Patamon was looked over.

"I'll be _fine_," it said, fighting against the doctor's prodding hands. "Just let me go so I can help." It watched helplessly as the three Tyrannomon tagged up against Angemon and used their blaze blast attack on him.

"I think he's going to be just fine," Jim said as he watched Hiroaki's digivice light up for the third time that day and Patamon digivolve into Angemon.

Kari sat stunned as she watched it go, helping up TK's partner and then both of them attacking the Tyrannomon. She definitely hadn't expected any of the new digimon to reach champion level after one day. But then, that was the only one who had. Most were rookies, and three had yet to move on from their in-training stage.

When the fire was almost out, and the village residents were bandaged and resting, the humans regrouped to watch their digimon end the fight. The Gizamon were knocked out, sitting on a pile near the forest with a few others who'd been taken out of the fight early. The Tyrannomon and Monochromon were holding out though, and two of the Pengmon had recovered and come to help. For a few minutes it was looking like it was a winning fight the digidestined. While it was obvious that all digimon involved were exhausted, the good side still had more of them.

Cody's mother was the first to look up in the sky when she heard the buzzing noise. She gently tapped Kari on the shoulder and pointed up.

"Are they here to help us or them?" she asked. The three giant Kuwagamon didn't look friendly enough to be good, but she really hoped they weren't against her either.

Kari groaned as she saw Cadetmon riding on the back of the one in front. There was no way they were going to win it now.

"Not giving up already, are you?" said an American voice behind the group. Kari smiled as she saw Michael standing with three of his friends. "We heard something was going on and thought we could help out a little."

The four new champion digimon joined the others and together they knocked out all of the earth-bound attackers. They didn't have enough time for a break as Cadetmon jumped off the back of the lead Kuwagamon and landed gracefully in front of the digidestined and the insect digimon started to attack as well.

"Little pests," Cadetmon spat. "You're not going to have as easy a time with these beauties." She whistled and five more various digimon came out from the forest. A snap of her fingers and a Flymon appeared and let her climb onto it's back and it started to fly out of the clearing.

Angewomon tried to stop her, but one of the Kuwagamon tackled her. The digidestined watched helplessly as she flew away with two unfamiliar winged creatures that carried between them a net full of digieggs.

"She stole my eggs!" Elecmon yelled, trying to stand despite his injuries. "Not again...." Jim pushed him gently back to the ground before he fell over.

"We'll get them back," he assured the caretaker, then returned to his group. "Why would Cadetmon want a bunch of eggs, anyway?" he asked Kari.

"Spetomon said he thought she might want to de-age all of us so she can raise us her army. I wouldn't be surprised if she tries the same thing with the digimon."

-_The Apartment-_

"I wish there was something we could do to help," Palmon said as she paced the living room floor.

The babies were all asleep, and the five eggs were still sitting peacefully on TK's mom's bed. The rookie digimon had been seated in the living room for the past fifteen minutes. None of them saying a word. The others had been gone for nearly two hours and still hadn't sent any messages. Worse still, Hiroaki had gone off in search of TK and no one was sure if the toddler was okay or not.

"If only I could digivolve without Matt having to be near me," Gabumon said.

The room became quiet again, save for the noise of the tv, which they'd left on.

Unknown to them at the time, the portal into the digital world was opening on the computer in TK's room. Six teenagers came out of it, followed quickly and silently by five digimon.

One of the boys put a finger to his lips and slowly opened the bedroom door and listened for any sound. All he heard was the tv. He turned back to the others and grinned. With one finger, he pointed to a digimon - one that looked like a parrot - and then pointed to the hallway. The digimon nodded and walked out.

Palmon screamed as the parrot walked nonchalantly into the living room, being the first to see him. The other digimon began to gather around her, blocking the babies from the foreign digimon's view.

"Sorry to startle you," the parrot said, smirking slightly. "Allow me to make it up to you. Let me sing a song for you."

"Not a chance. Electro Shocker!" Tentomon shot at the thing but it only flew out of the way and started singing in an annoyingly high-pitched voice.

The ten destined digimon covered their ears as the song started to echo in their head, giving them all headaches. When it ended five minutes later, they were all lying on the floor, writhing in pain.

"The coast is clear," the parrot called down the hall in a sing-song voice. The teenagers came first, followed again by the four other digimon.

"Sorry about this," one girl said in a Southern accent as she took a length of rope from her backpack and started to tie Biyomon up. The grin on her face as she worked confirmed for the bird that the girl wasn't sorry at all.

Five of the unknown humans worked quickly together, tying up and gagging all ten of the digimon.

"Nice work," the one boy commented, standing back from the others and watching them carefully. "Now let's pack-up."

While he and the five digimon scattered into the kitchen and dining room, filling backpacks with all of the baby supplies, the other five humans each took a baby in their arms and started heading back to the bedroom. The tied-up digimon struggled against the ropes to save their partners, but it was no good.

When the last human returned to the living room, he took the backpacks from the five digimon and ordered each of them to take a baby as well. The did so without question and he made them go to the bedroom in front of him.

-_An Hour Later_-

"So, what's next?" Davis' mother asked as she and the others returned to the apartment. Each one of them looked exhausted. Several digimon, all in-training, climbed onto TK's bed and collapsed.

"We just keep fighting them off until we get strong enough to attack ourselves," Kari answered.

The room was too tiny for all of the humans and most of them had started filing out into the other rooms. Everyone was startled when a scream came from the living room.

"Ken's gone!" Mrs. Ichijouji said tearfully as Kari came into the room. Gatomon started going around to the digimon and cutting the ropes with her claws.

"Cadetmon must have used the battle as a distraction so she could come in here and take the babies," TK reasoned.

"No, it wasn't Cadetmon," Biyomon said after the duct tape that had held her beak shut was removed. "There were five digimon here, but they were all led by a human."

"What human?" Yolei's father asked. "A digidestined wouldn't do this."

Kari and TK shared a look, but kept their mouths shut for the sake of Ken's parents.

"I'm not sure they were digidestined," said Agumon. "I've never seen them before. And they didn't show any signs of having a digivice."

"But they must have, to use the portal in my computer."

"We have to get him back," Mrs. Ichijouji muttered, now crying fully.

"We will. We'll get them all back. We just have to figure out where to go," Hiroaki assured her. "The good news is, they're not going hurt them." Receiving several questioning glances, he elaborated. "It's like Kari said earlier. Cadetmon wanted the kids in the first place to be her army. She still does. These humans are probably working for her."

"Or vise versa. Spetomon said he'd run into Cadetmon twice before. Both times she was working for another digimon. He thought this time she was starting the war herself, but I think it's more likely that she's still got a boss," Kari said.

"Okay, so all we have to do it find out who these humans are, then we can get them here, in the real world," Agumon said.

The adults started talking about theories when Hiroaki took charge and quieted them down.

"Look, there's nothing we can do tonight. I say we all go home and pick this up tomorrow. By then we'll have Joe and Mimi's parents to help us. And you never know, with the extra help we may just be able to end this whole thing tomorrow. But until then, we need to rest."

The adults nodded sadly and quickly said their goodbyes before heading out - this time taking their digimon with them. Soon only TK, Kari, Hiroaki, Jim and Haruhiko remained.

"Do you really believe that's true?" TK asked his father.

"No. But I thought it would be enough to get everyone out of here so we could think of a plan."

The small group order pizza and sat around the living room silently until it arrived.

"If Cadetmon wants an army so bad, why didn't she take the destined eggs? Wouldn't they have more power than the ones she got?" Hiro asked.

"Probably not. The destined digimon will only be able to digivolve with help from their partners, and she doesn't have them," Jim explained.

When dinner was over, the three remaining adults left as well.

"I hope they're okay," TK said as he and Kari got into his bed - the double bed now able to fit both of them. "Matt can't be happy about this...."

-_In the Digital World-_

'This is wrong. I know it's wrong. So why am I still here? I should just pack my bag and get the hell out of here. And where are you going to go, genius? You don't honestly think they're going to let you come back now, do you?'

Stana shook her head sadly. Her inner struggle was doing nothing to help solve her problems, if anything it was creating more. She sighed and put her head back, resting against the headboard.

"You're not goin' to bed already, are you, Stan-ya?" Cecilia, the perfect Southern Belle, skipped into the room the girls shared with her Gizamon trotting behind her. Stana ground her teeth as the other girl mispronounced her name in that annoying accent for the umpteenth time.

"It's _Stana_," she said, trying to keep her temper in check. "Stan-A!"

Cecilia dismissed the words with a wave of her hand. "Yeah, yeah. So, are you goin' to bed or what?"

"No. I was just resting."

"Good, because Kaden just called a team meeting downstairs."

Stana jumped out of bed immediately. The less time she spent on Kaden's bad side the better. She followed Cecilia and Gizamon down the grand staircase and into the den where the four boys were already seated, sipping hot cider by the fireplace. The girls took their seats in the two empty chairs.

"Now that we're all here," Kaden said, giving Stana a pointed look, "we can begin."

A Gotsumon carrying a tray with two more glasses of hot cider entered the room and offered them to the girls. Cecilia took hers quickly, but Stana declined. When the Gotsumon left, Kaden continued.

"Cadetmon sent a message. She says that she's impressed with our work and she has another suggestion." Cecilia and the three other boys looked visibly excited by this news, but Stana remained frowning.

"I beginning to wonder if you have any original thoughts, Kaden," she said, earning a glare from the blonde, spiky-haired boy. The other four looked at her with a mixed expression of admiration and terror. "You say you're in charge but all you've been doing this past week is take orders from Cadetmon."

"They're not orders, they're suggestions! Suggestions that _I_ decide whether or not to use. Now, if you're not satisfied with our little family, you're more than welcome to leave. I'm sure everyone will be thrilled to have you back _home_," he sneered. When she didn't say anything, he smiled and spoke again to the group.

"Earlier this morning, two more of the digidestined were de-aged. One was a girl from the Russian team. The other was one of the Japanese."

"Which one?" Reid asked. He was Cecilia's twin brother. They shared the same pale skin, wavy light brown hair, and annoying Southern drawl.

"The boy. Takeru, I believe. Cadetmon says that he was not de-aged as well as the others. The process was interrupted, so he's about two now."

"What do you want us to do then, Kaden?" Cecilia asked, sucking up as usual.

"We need to take him, like we took the others. Cadetmon thinks the older ones brought him along on their little escapade this afternoon."

"But we didn't see any child during the battle tonight," the Gizamon spoke up. "The girl was there, and all the new digidestined, but no kid."

"They're smart. They're keeping him out of sight, but they can't keep that up forever. They'll most likely be back tomorrow, to search for their lost friends. When they split up, we attack the ones with the child. Keep them busy so we can snatch him. Or, better yet, make him run away from them so that they'll spend all their time wandering through the forest searching for a lost child and not for us."

Stana bit her lip. She was liking this plan less and less as Kaden went on about it. "Why does Cade-" She caught herself. "Why do _you_ want the child so badly? Why do you want the babies, for that matter?"

Kaden didn't become angry like she thought he would. Instead he started rubbing his head, as if she was giving him a headache. "We've already gone over this. We get the children so their friends will surrender to us," he said impatiently. Then he looked at her, staring her right in the eye. "You do want that, don't you? You don't want your only home to be ruled by those pests. Right?"

"I want what's best for the digiworld, yes."

"Then just go along with the plan."

She felt five pairs of eyes watching her, waiting for any sign of agreement. Her mind still wasn't made up, but she nodded and let Kaden continue with his speech.

An hour later, when the meeting was finally over and everyone knew their roles in the attack the following morning, the four teens went upstairs to bed. The five digimon remained downstairs by the fire.

"I hope the fight drags on longer tomorrow," Cecilia told Stana as they got ready for bed. "I want to join in this time."

"You and everyone else here," Stana said quietly. The other girl rolled her eyes at her.

"Oh, come on. You're telling me you're not even the least bit interested in taking on one of the legendary digidestined? Not even a little bit?"

'No. Fighting's not my thing. You know that," Stana said as she tied a bathrobe over her pajamas.

Cecilia shrugged and climbed into her bed across the room from Stana's. But she continued to watch as Stana pulled on a pair of slippers and grabbed a book from her nightstand.

"Where are you going?"

"Upstairs. I want to do a little reading before bed."

The Southern girl rolled her eyes. "Fine. Just don't spend all night with those brats. We've got to get up early tomorrow."

Stana nodded and left the room, passing by the door to the boys' room where she could hear them laughing and having a good time.

'Kaden will put a stop to that soon enough,' she thought as she started up the darkly lit staircase that led up to the attic.

It hadn't really been an attic for a week. Cadetmon had made a 'suggestion' and the team had transformed it into the nursery it was today. Twelve cribs were lined up on both long walls. Two doors at the end of the room led to a bathroom and a large closet packed with baby clothes and supplies.

In the middle of the room was a single rocking chair. Lying on the floor in front of it, a digimon lifted it's head up and smiled sleepily at Stana. She knelt down and patted it's head gently.

"Go back to sleep," she whispered, and the creature closed it's eyes again.

Stana sighed and started checking on the babies. She stopped when she reached Matt's crib. She didn't know his name, but she'd fallen in love with the blue-eyed baby. He reminded her of her own baby brother back home in Canada. She sighed again as she thought of her brother. He was the only one she really missed. She'd give anything to have him with her then.

As she silently watched over Matt, he slowly started to wake up. Stana quickly picked him up and started rocking him before he could cry and get Kaden mad. He looked up at her with tears in his eyes and started sobbing.

"It's okay, baby," she said softly, rubbing small circles on his back. "I'm going to get you back home."

**Author's Note:**

Well, there you have it. This is definitely my favorite chapter so far. What about you guys?

No, the crest/digivice pics aren't done yet, but I'm going to try really hard to come up with the last seven symbols I need for you by the next chapter.

-Lizzy


	9. Switching Sides

**Author's Note:**

_Tamara_Caitlyn: _lol. No, not quite the original five, but hopefully just as awesome?

_Urahara144_: I'm sooo glad you're enjoying the story. As for the crests, well, great minds think alike. Keep reading... =D

_AngelOfLight04:_ Thank you!

Oh, and some of TK's speech is messed up on purpose in this chapter.

Chapter Ten

Kari sighed happily as she woke up. She'd had the first full night of sleep in three days. Then the events of the previous day came crashing down on her and she let out a small groan.

"I take it you're up now?" Gatomon asked from beside her. She looked to be wide awake.

"How long have you been here?"

"A few minutes." She hopped down from the bed and went to the door. "Jim and TK's father are here already," she said before he left.

Kari looked at the clock and saw that it was going on nine. She took a few minutes getting out of bed, not really looking forward to the long day ahead of her.

TK was already awake, eating breakfast at the dining table with his father and Jim, and not having a very good time of it. First he'd had problems with the chair. Not only could he not climb onto the chair himself, but once Hiroaki lifted him into it, he found that he wasn't tall enough to completely see over the table either. Now, with a phone book and dictionary beneath him, he was having trouble keeping the knife and fork in his hand as he tried to cut his pancakes.

Every ounce of the boy wanted to protest when his father took the plate away and started cutting the pancakes for him, but he didn't have enough energy. He's spent the better part of the night lying awake in bed, worrying about whether or not Matt was okay. By the looks of Hiroaki, he hadn't had a better night.

"Morning," Kari greeted as cheerily as she could when she joined them at the table. No one said anything for a few minutes.

"My parents got home yesterday," Jim finally said. "I filled them in on everything and told them to come over around noon. I figured we'd have a plan by then."

"And I called all the others. They're all taking the day off and plan on getting here at noon whether we have a plan or not," Hiroaki said. The room fell silent again.

Jim's Bukamon, eating beside him at the table, floated closer and put a reassuring flipper on his partner's arm.

"Don't worry, Jim, we'll find them."

"Yeah. All we need is to find Cadetmon's hide-out," agreed Hiroaki's Tokomon.

"That's not going to be easy," TK said. "It took us months to find Ken's fortress when he was the Digimon Emperor - and we've only known about Cadetmon for two days!"

Kari nodded, remembering all too well.

Hiroaki had just started clearing the table and Jim doing the dishes when there was a knock on the door. Kari got up to answer it, mumbling about the time. However when she opened the door, she didn't find anyone she was expecting. Instead, a girl around her age stood in front of her wearing a dark green jogging outfit with her red hair pulled hack a pony-tail. She didn't look at all familiar.

"Can I help you with something?" Kari asked when the girl didn't say anything.

"Not really. My name is Stana Kyndrick. I have some information on the location of your friends."

Biyomon, having overheard the girl, came into the hallway.

"She's one of the humans that took Sora!" she yelled to Kari.

The girl made no attempt at running away, and she had already started walking into the apartment when Kari grabbed her armed and pulled her in.

"What's going on?" Jim asked, eyeing Stana suspiciously as Kari made her sit down in front of everyone in the living room. She looked visibly uncomfortable as she looked at the digimon, ten of which were glaring at her - recognizing her from the night before.

"I came to apologize," she said quietly. "I helped take your friends yesterday."

"We know that," Gatomon said, stepping forward. "We want to know why you're here now. You couldn't have come just to say you're sorry."

"But I am," she insisted. "I knew it was wrong to take them. I tried to talk the others out of it, but they wouldn't listen to me."

"And I take it this is all you can say, right? You can't tell us where the digidestined are, or why you took them, or the 'others' will kill you, right?" the feline went on.

"No. No, that's not it at all. I'll tell you whatever you want to know. I swear. Ask me anything."

The group looked at each other skeptically while Stana waited patiently. Finally Hiroaki took charge and started asking questions.

"Where are they?"

"In our manor. It's difficult to find if you're not looking for it. You have to go through a waterfall, cross a lake, pass a few digimon that would rather be left alone," she named off. "There's another way to it - a safer way - but it's longer."

"How many humans are with you?"

"Five. There used to be a sixth, but she left a while ago."

"Left?" Kari spoke up.

"Yes. She disappeared in the middle of the night, about two weeks ago. I guess she went home."

"And where's that?" Hiroaki asked.

Stana shrugged. "Italy. That's all I know. We're all from different places."

"Tell us about the others."

Despite looking nervous, she nodded and ran through the list quickly.

"There's Kaden Leach. He's like our leader but I don't think he's calling the shots as much as he says he is."

"Why not?" Hiro interrupted.

"We met Cadetmon a month ago. She was good to us at first. She gave us her house to stay in and taught us a few things to help us survive in the Digital World. Then I started noticing how whenever she suggested something or made a comment, Kaden would do it. And, of course, whenever Kaden does something, the rest of us have to follow."

"Why is that? Who made him your leader?"

"It's kind of an unspoken rule. He has the master crest."

"Crest?" Kari repeated. "You're a digidestined?"

"No. At least, not like you." Stana pulled a digivice out of her pocket, but it was clearly different from the others. It had the shape of the new model that Jim and Hiroaki had received, but instead of the clean white, it was jet black. The three buttons beneath the screen were still white, and the band around it was a deep red. Above the screen was her crest, but none of the humans recognized it. "Cadetmon calls us the Shadow Digidestined, because we're evil."

"Who says you're evil?" TK asked.

"Our crests." She frowned and tapped the small symbol. "Mine is deception. Kaden's is darkness - like I said, the master crest. Just like light is yours."

Kari raised her eyebrows. "What do you mean? Light isn't our 'master' crest. If anything, that would be courage."

Stana looked confused. "Are you sure? Cadetmon made it clear that light and dark are the most powerful. Good and evil."

When Kari didn't say anything else, TK continued with the questioning.

"Do you honestly think you're evil? I mean, you're here, trying to help us. That doesn't seem evil."

"The crests don't lie. We all deserve them because of the things we did in our pasts. Like Cecilia. I heard she 'accidentally' set fire to the cafeteria at her school. Hers is the crest of chaos. Her twin, Reid, has the crest of secrecy. You can't imagine how hard it is to get a straight answer out of him.

"Then there's Nolan Drake. Hatred. He brags that he single-handedly beat up three guys in his school parking lot and was expelled. Taye Diya. The crest of egotism. Enough said. Val had the crest of idleness. She slacked off a lot in the past. She was getting better, being with us, though."

"What about you? The crest of deception?"

"Yeah. I used to lie a lot. About everything."

"So why should we believe you now?" Gatomon said.

"I guess you don't have any reason to. But I'll do whatever it takes for you to trust me."

"We trust you," Palmon said, pushing Gatomon out of the way slightly. "I've been Mimi's partner long enough to know when someone's being sincere."

Stana smiled gratefully at her. "Thank you. What else do you need to know?"

"Five days ago, Cadetmon kidnapped a powerful digimon named Ennamon and has been holding her until Spetomon can de-age all of the digidestined. Do you know where she's keeping Ennamon?"

The Canadian girl was quiet for a moment as she thought. "The manor is big, but it would be hard for her to hide anything in these without us finding out. Unless ... the only room we haven't been allowed in is the cellar. She keeps it locked up. But I've seen her go down there every morning with a couple of her workers. That's the only place I can think of."

"We have to get her out of there," Kari said. "Is there any chance of getting your friends out of the house for an hour or so while we get her and the babies?"

"Sure, but it'll be hard to do. Especially with what Kaden wants us to do tonight." Stana bit her lip. "Cadetmon suggested we try to take him." She pointed at TK.

"How do you plan to do that?" Hiroaki asked, feeling his temper rising.

"We figured you'd all be coming back this afternoon to look for the others, so we were going to wait for you in the forest and try to separate you or get him to run away so we could snatch him."

"Do they know I have my old mind?" TK asked.

"No. I don't think so." The boy smiled at her.

"Forget it, TK," Hiro told him, recognizing the same smile from when Matt was coming up with plans that always led to trouble. "Whatever it is you're planning, you can just forget about it. You're staying here in the apartment for the rest of the week."

The toddler scowled. "Do I need to remind you that Matt and the others were in this apartment when they were taken?"

"What _are_ you planning?" Kari asked.

"I want you to let them take me. They'll take me to the manor and while Stana distracts them, I can find out what Cadetmon is planning next and we can stop her. And if I act like an actual kid they won't suspect anything."

"I'm going with you," Patamon said.

"No. They don't want us to take any digimon."

"What about the D-Terminals." Kari pulled hers out and showed it to Stana. "Could you smuggle one in with TK?"

"Hold on a minute!" Hiroaki shouted. "You're all acting like he's actually going."

"Well, it makes sense for him to go," Jim said. "I mean, he's right. No one's going to suspect a three year old of being a spy. And we get someone on the inside who can contact us regularly to let us know that the kids are all right."

"And what happens when he's caught?"

"He won't be," Stana assured the worried father. "My partner, Spritemon, and Val's Gotsumon are in charge of watching the babies when we're not there. They can be trusted to help TK sneak around."

"I still don't like it."

"I'm not thrilled about it either, but it's better than doing nothing," TK told him, and Hiro nodded his agreement.

"I have to be going," Stana said, standing to leave. "I go jogging every morning for an hour or so, and they're going to start wondering what's taking me so long." She headed for the front door.

"You can use the computer in my room, if it's faster," TK said and she thanked him as she changed direction.

The next half-hour was spent calling everyone and telling them to come over as soon as possible. Jim left soon after to pick up Mimi's parents from the airport. He promised to be back before his own parents arrived.

With an actual plan to focus on, everyone was much less depressed than they were when they left the apartment the night before. Kotomi even offered to bring some of Cody's old clothes to help with fooling Cadetmon. TK agreed, knowing how ridiculous he looked in his shrunken teenage clothes.

At noon, with four more digidestined added to their team, everyone returned to the digital world, including the ten partnerless digimon.

"Remember, we just need to worry about fighting them off. No one follow TK when he runs off," Kari told the group when they landed in a different part of the same forest from the day before.

-_Two Miles Away-_

Six digivices started beeping as their owners waited patiently, all sitting in the branches of the trees surrounding a small meadow. With a nod from the humans, six digimon dropped down from the trees and digivolved to their champion stages and waited for Cadetmon to come down from her own tree and lead them to the digidestined.

As they got closer to the source of the beeping, another group of champions joined them. More friends of Cadetmon. When they finally ran into the digidestined, there were over thirty evil digimon following her.

'They're dead,' Stana thought frantically, watching the scene from the treetops with the other five. The only digimon she could be sure wouldn't hurt them was her own. The others were all under Cadetmon's spell.

The battle began slowly. The size of the opposition was making some of the adult digidestined lose faith in their own abilities, but they were pushed on by the others. Ken's parents did most of the pushing, as they had with the last battle.

Cadetmon's group eventually started to split up into smaller teams. It forced the other side to do the same. And when the teams started to move, going deeper into the forest, the human partners had to follow. TK stayed where he was, waiting for the moment when he knew Stana and the others would be watching him, and it would be more realistic for him to be able to get away from his group.

Kari, Hiroaki and the sisters of Davis and Yolei were with him in the last group when one of the five Aquilamon was hit and fell beside them. He started running the other way. Behind him, he could hear them calling him back for the sake of Stana's group, who he could feel watching him.

He kept running, occasionally finding himself in the middle of another battle and turning the other way. After what seemed like hours to him, he collapsed on the hard ground and, allowing the child side to take over momentarily, he starting sobbing softly.

Hidden behind a tightly clustered grouping of trees, Stana watched him with part of her team.

"Now's our chance, before the others find him. Go get him, Cecilia," Kaden ordered.

Stana regarded him suspiciously. "Not me?" she asked.

"You're not the only one with a little brother, Stan-ya."

"Reid is ten minutes younger than you, _Cece_. And you hate kids."

"I do not," Cecilia argued a little louder than she meant to. The three teenagers turned to see TK's head shoot up at the sound.

"_Go_," Kaden growled low, so only the girls could hear him.

The brunette nodded and slowly walked around the trees and let the small boy see her. TK pushed himself as far away from her as he could go before his back hit a tree.

"Stay away," he warned, still crying lightly.

"It's all right, sweetie," Cecilia said in the sugary sweet voice that made Stana cringe. "I'm not gonna hurt you. What's your name?"

"TK. Wha's yours?"

"Cecilia. Are you lost, honey?" He nodded. "Do you want to come to my house? I'm sure your friends will find you there."

The toddler appeared to be thinking it over for a minute. "Okay," he said quietly, standing up and taking her outstretched hand.

"Go with them back to the manor," Kaden told Stana. "I'm going to get the others." The boy didn't wait for a reply before he started marching back the way they'd come.

Stana didn't say much as she followed Cece and TK on the trip to the manor. She paid little attention to the pair as they talked the whole way. She assumed Cecilia was trying to distract the boy from memorizing the route, but he continued to watch the scenery carefully even as he answered her many questions.

When the trio finally arrived on the grounds, three Vegiemon were standing on the front steps waiting for them. When they got closer, one of the digimon hopped down to face them. TK hid shyly behind the girls.

"Miss Cecilia, we need you help with a small security problem. We would ask Master Kaden, but he's not back yet," the Vegiemon said.

"All right, all right. Hold on a sec." The brunette turned and knelt down in front of TK. "Sweetie, I need to help these guy out. But Stan-ya here is gonna show you around the manor, okay?"

"We'll be fine. Go," the younger girl told her.

The pair waited for the Vegiemon to lead Cecilia around to the back of the house before moving.

"If you ever mispronounce my name like that, I'll see to it that you stay like this a while longer," she threatened lightly.

TK chuckled and followed her up the steps and into the large manor.

**Author's Note:**

I had to end that early simply because it would have been torture to keep writing. Really hoping the next chapter is easier to write.

The good news? Pictures of the good and shadow digivices and crests as well as a chart of the digidestined and their digimon are now up! You can find a link to them in my profile under fan fiction extras. Review and let me know what you think.

-Lizzy


	10. Puzzle Pieces

**Author's Note:**

_Urahara144:_ Thanks again for your review! Hope I answered all of your questions. ^_^

Chapter Eleven

"Did you bring the D-Terminal?" Stana asked TK as she led him through the first floor of the mansion. The toddler nodded and handed her the hand-held computer. "I'll keep it in my bag. We're not allowed to go through each others' things."

They stopped walking when they reached the kitchen. It was a small room, and darkly lit. There was barely enough space for two people to work in there. It had three doors. One connecting to the dining hall, where they'd come from, another to the back gardens, and a third to what they assumed to be the cellar. It was a large oak door, and it had an iron lock on it.

"That's got to be where she's keeping her," Stana whispered.

TK stepped forward curiously and tried the handle. When the door didn't budge, he shrugged to the girl. "I had to give it a shot."

She only laughed and motioned for him to follow her out. She led him up the winding staircase and started the tour of the second floor.

"That leads to the boys' room. That's probably where you'll be sleeping. The door at the end of the hall is Cadetmon's room. Never been in there."

"Cadetmon stays here?"

"Well, sometimes. It is her house, after all." She stared suspiciously down at him. "You're not thinking of going in there, are you?"

"That's what I'm here for." He grinned up at her and then started walking down the hall. Quickly, she grasped the strap of his red overalls, pulling him back.

"Wait until the others are asleep," she advised. "Anyone could catch you right now."

They continued on with the tour. She showed him hers and Cece's room, and the spare room the digimon slept in. Then she took him up to the attic. The nursery looked almost exactly as it had the night before, just a little more cheerful with the afternoon light shining through the two long windows.

TK seemed surprised as he looked around the room. He hadn't been expecting to find babies in such good condition - actually being taken care of. He supposed this was silly now, when he knew all along that Cadetmon wanted them alive and well to be her army.

"Something's off," Stana said from beside him. She walked to the other end of the room where. "There was a crib here this morning." She pointed at a small bed with side rails and sports-themed bedding.

"Cadetmon wanted me to switch it." A Gotsumon appeared from the closet and smiled at the pair. "She thought it made more sense to keep all the kids in one room."

"That's good," Stana said to TK. "It'll make it easier for you to sneak around if you're not in the same room as the guys."

"Ah, so you do have your regular mind, then," the Gotsumon said excitedly. "Well, I wish you much luck. Fooling Cadetmon's not going to be easy, but I'll help in any way I can." When Stana thanked him, he started heading for the door. "I should get started on dinner before Kaden gets back."

"What is he, your chef?" TK said when the digimon had left. Stana frowned.

"Well, without Valeria here, he can't really fight with us. Some of the others wanted to kick him out when she left, but I stuck up for him. I said he should stay with us in case Val ever came back. Amazingly, Kaden agreed with me. Gotsumon takes up a lot of jobs around the manor for us, to thank us for letting him stay." She sighed.

TK nodded and started strolling down the long aisle, peeking into the cribs as he went, looking for his brother. When he reached Stana, he found her staring down into the crib he'd been looking for. Matt was sleeping peacefully, which surprised them both.

"He's my brother," TK told her proudly. "Matt."

She smiled down at him. Noticing that he was barely tall enough to see through the bars of the crib, she picked him up and sat him on her hip so he could look down into it.

"He looks like mine," she said quietly, smiling again.

"You have a brother?"

"Yeah. He's two now. My sister's five. I haven't seen them in about a month."

"Don't worry, you'll see them again, when this is all over."

"I'm not so sure." At his questioning glance, she continued. "Before I came here, I ran away.

"I've had some ... disagreements, with my parents lately. My stepmother especially. So this one day, my shift at the electronics department at the mall had just ended, and I was waiting for my replacement to come in so I could leave. And I started thinking about how I'd have to go home when I left. It was the last place I wanted to be. I had already made up my mind to go to my friend's house for the night when on of the computers in display lit up and I got this." She held up her shadow digivice.

"I wouldn't call that running away," TK told her.

"You didn't let me finish. I went home and packed an overnight bag and told my dad that I was going to me friend's house so we could study for the test the next morning. I ... never got to my friend's place. I just kept walking. When I finally stopped I was at a little internet cafe. It was one of my favorite places in town. I went in to get warmed up and figure out what to do next."

"And that's when you came to the digiworld," TK finished for her. She nodded.

"It took me to a stream near a small inn. I met Valeria there. She was eating in the dining hall when I came in. She seemed so excited to see me, like I was her long-lost friend or something." She smiled at the memory. "We were really close. Similar situation in the real world, and same interests. She'd only been there a couple of days and she and Gotsumon had been searching for other people. After that, the three of us went out together and found my Spritemon. Then we ran into Nolan, and everything kind of snowballed from there."

They heard the front doors slam shut and Kaden's voice call up to her.

"Are you ready?" she asked TK.

"Let's go."

She carried him down the two flights of stairs so they could get there faster. She put him down just before they entered the den, so he could walk behind her. The five others were once again seated around the fireplace, this time drinking what looked like champagne and talking excitedly. Stana didn't think she'd seen Kaden smile before that day.

"Sit," he said when he saw her watching them. It was more of a request than an order.

She took a few more steps into the room and turned around to look at TK. The toddler followed her slowly. She motioned for him to stand beside her.

"Hey there, sweetie," Cece cooed from her seat beside her brother. "Come sit beside me." She patted the chair on her other side that remained empty. It had been Val's.

Stana nodded and TK hopped up on the chair. She sat beside him in the last chair.

The Gotsumon returned to the room with a tray holding two flute glasses filled with the champagne-like drink.

"Darquin juice," the digimon told them when Stana didn't take a glass. "Non-alcoholic. It's very rare."

"Where did you get it?" she asked casually and took a small sip. It had a strange taste - almost like strawberry mixed with vanilla - not exactly unpleasant. It had a calming effect on her nerves and she felt herself becoming instantly happier by the second.

"I've had it for years."

Everyone turned to the doors where Cadetmon was standing, grinning at them.

"Consider it a gift for a job well done today."

Stana felt the drink wearing off as she looked at the digimon and took another large gulp.

"Join us," Kaden said, starting to stand to allow her to take his seat.

"I'd love to, but I had some things to take care at the mountain. I'll see you all tomorrow."

When she was gone, the celebration continued.

"Do you have anything planned for tomorrow, Kaden?" asked a dark-skinned boy around fifteen. He sat between Kaden and another boy, and was already on his second glass of juice. "I could use a day off."

"That depends on the opposition," the leader said, seeming to sober up slightly. He tilted his head to the side and studied TK, who had been sipping his juice and watching the room quietly the whole time. When he caught the boy's eye, he smiled again. "Do you know who I am?" he asked in a low voice.

TK shook his head once.

The older boy pushed a strand of blonde hair out of his eyes and again studied the toddler. "My name is Kaden. Cece tells me you're lost. I'd like to help you get back to your family."

"How?" asked the wide-eyed little boy.

"Well, I'll need to know where they are. Do you know where they might be looking for you?"

TK pretended to think for a few minutes. When he looked back at Kaden he shook his head again. "I've never been here before."

Kaden sighed and looked away, into the fire. The room became silent as his team waited for him to say something.

"Cadetmon will be searching for them tomorrow. There's no point in us going with her. When she finds them, she'll bring them here. In the meantime-" He made a point of looking all five of the teens in the eyes. "-we wait. We plan, we regain our strength, and then we finish them off."

_-Later-_

TK silently counted the baseballs on his blanket by moonlight as he sat alone in the dark nursery. It had been at least an hour since the group had finish dinner and Cece had announced that it was time for the "poor baby" to go to bed. After having been helped into a pair of slightly big dinosaur pajamas, he felt like a lifesize doll to the girl.

He'd pretended to be asleep when he heard her coming to check on him twice, and once when Sora had started crying and Stana came to check on her. When she discovered the toddler still awake, she told him she'd come back later on when everyone was going to sleep.

He was near the point of falling asleep when the door opened again and a digimon, only a tiny bit taller than the boy, crept into the room and over to the bed.

"TK, are you awake?" He opened an eye. "Stana sent me to tell you that the others are all asleep. And she asked me to help you with anything you need."

Yawning, TK slid out of the bed and started walking with the digimon back downstairs. "Thanks, Spritemon," he mumbled sleepily, rubbing his eyes.

When they returned to the second floor, Spritemon quickly peeked inside the room Cadetmon was using. Seeing that the coast was clear, she motioned for TK to go inside.

"I'll wait out here and keep watch," she told him and closed the door behind him.

The room was a large oval. Everything in it was a stark white. The walls, the king-size bed, the vanity table, desk and chair. Even the bedding and drapes were white. TK's eye was drawn to the three tall filing cabinets partially hidden behind a curtain that separated the room's sitting area from bedroom.

He walked closer to the cabinets but felt himself losing hope when he realized he could only reach the bottom two drawers of each row. Deciding to do all he could and worry about the rest later, he started working. Drawer after drawer he pulled out and searched through. The bottom three were empty, and the next row wasn't much better. One drawer was filled to the brim with maps of different parts of the digital world. Another held long lists of names of digimon and their locations and dates. The last one, containing maps of the real world, got TK worried.

After placing everything back in the drawers the way he'd found them, he ran to the door and looked out into the hallway. When he saw Spritemon was still alone, he pulled her inside and shut the door.

"Has Cadetmon ever mentioned going into the real world?"

"No. Never. And I don't think she wants to, either. After Stana and the others told her about their lives before coming here, she advised them not to go back to that worlds. Except for yesterday, when they got your friends."

"Then why would she have maps from my world?" he wondered out loud.

"Let me see them." TK took her over to the drawer and pulled a few of the maps out again. Gasping, the digimon held up a small map for him to see. "This is the town where Stana's from. Milton."

"Do you recognize any of these other places?"

"Yes. Nolan's from Dublin. And I think Kaden said he was from Newcastle."

"And Stana said that Valencia was from Italy." TK kept digging until he found a map of a city in Italy with a name he couldn't pronounce. "Is this where she was from?"

"I think so." The digimon looked him in the eye. "This isn't good, is it?"

"Probably not. Help me put these away. I need to take a look in the other drawers."

They quickly put the maps back in the drawer in as neat a pile as they could manage. Then Spritemon helped TK drag the desk chair over for him to stand on.

"What's in there?" she asked, standing back at the slightly open door and keeping watch.

"Files. They're all labelled with country names." He pulled out the one labelled _Japan_ and flipped it open. Twenty-seven papers were stacked inside. Each held a name of a digidestined and their partner, along with some information on both. TK recognized the twelve from his team - including himself - and all but three of the remained fifteen. The papers had everything from their addresses and family members, to their digimon's attacks and digivolutions. The only thing that brought him comfort was that she had yet to put together papers for the new digidestined, and he hoped she hadn't figured out who they were.

Looking back into the drawer, he counted at least thirty more files. He didn't bother opening them too, knowing it would be more of the same useless information.

He quickly moved on to the next drawer which contained seven small vials of different colored liquid and more papers. But before he had the chance to look at anything, Spritemon ran over to him and shut the drawer.

"Someone just came in the front door," she informed him.

They put the chair beside the desk where they'd found it and then ran back up to the nursery. When they were safe, sitting on TK's bed, he asked for his D-Terminal. She pulled it out of a small brown pouch tied around her waist and handed it to him.

"Did you find out anything that will help us stop her?"

"I'm not sure, but the sooner Kari and the others get here, the better chance we'll have of saving everyone." He quickly typed out a letter and sent it off.

_Kari,_

_Everyone's okay, but I'm not sure what's going on here._

_I can't get into the cellar where we think they're is keeping Ennamon. I'm going to search for a key or something tomorrow._

_I already looked in Cadetmon's room. I think she's been watching us. She has files about digidestined all over the world, but not our families. She's got maps of the real world, too. I'm not so sure it's just the digital world she wants to take over now._

_I'm sending you some directions to the manor. I don't think Cadetmon will be here tomorrow, but the others will. Be careful._

_-TK_

-_The Next Morning-_

Stana was woken by a persistent pounding on the bedroom door. She could hear Cecilia groan in the other bed and she smirked. At least she wasn't the only one having a rough start.

Opening one eye, she saw that her bedside clock only read seven-oh-six. She usually she got up at seven-thirty and went for a jog for an hour before the others got up.

"Girls, get up, now! We've got training today!" Kaden's voice bellowed through the door.

"I thought we were getting a day off," Cece whined as she got out of bed and shuffled over to the door to let him in.

"Well I've changed my mind. Is that all right with you two?" Cece scowled at him and Stana remained in bed. "Get dressed. I want you downstairs in ten minutes."

"Well, so much for suntaning by the pond," the older girl said as she shut the door and bed her way to the walk-in closet the two girls shared.

"Oh, look on the bright side, Ce. This way you get to practice blowing more things up." Stana avoided being hit by a shoe as she quickly grabbed her jeans and tank top from the closet and ducked back into the bedroom.

When she was dressed, she went up to the nursery to check on things. Gotsumon and Spritemon were already tending to the babies, so she ignored them all and went straight to TK. The toddler was still sleeping soundly but she knew that wouldn't last much longer once the training started.

Once he was awake and dressed - which Stana had let him take care of on his own - they made their way down to the ground floor. Gizamon was waiting in the kitchen for them.

"Kaden wants you and Spritemon outside in fifteen," he told her. "You get the extra time to make the kid something to eat." She gave the digimon a small solute and then told him to leave, which he did all too willingly.

"Do they always treat you like that?" TK asked as he watched her make him some scrambled eggs and French toast.

"No. We used to be more of a team, but I was kind of opposed to taking the babies. They said I was getting soft. It's just gotten a little worse since you got here."

After twelve minutes, she put the plate down in front of TK and headed for the back door where Spritemon was waiting for her.

"Come outside when you're done eating. I don't think Kaden's going to want you wandering around the house unsupervised," she told him.

He watched the group through the open window as he ate. Kaden was pairing them off as dueling partners. TK kept his eyes on Stana. She was fighting with Reid while their digimon battled alongside them. It was interesting for him to watch, knowing that they were only training even though it seemed very real to both of them. There was no hint of mercy in their eyes as they threw punch after punch. Or when Stana kicked the older boy in the chest, sending him to the ground in an early victory.

TK strolled out just as the duels were ending. Kaden was quietly congratulating Stana and Taye for winning their fights, like himself. But when he saw TK, he quickly changed his attitude.

"Gotsumon!" he called. The lone digimon had been watching the training. "Show the boy around while we work."

"Yes, sir." The digimon took TK's hand and pulled him along to another area of the backyard. The gardens. When there were out of sight, he let go. "You've got to be careful. Kaden doesn't like it when his training sessions are interrupted."

"Well I don't plan on sticking around long enough to do it again."

They walked in silence for a few minutes, admiring the mysterious flowers and trees that grew around the manor. After fifteen minutes, TK spotted an wrought iron gate at the other end of the garden.

"Where does that lead?" he asked.

"Oh, it's just an old temple. Cadetmon doesn't like us going there."

TK turned around to make sure no one could see them, then ran ahead to the gate and pushed it open.

"Are you out of your mind?" Gotsumon said, following reluctantly. "Do you have a death wish or something?"

"No, but I need to help my friends. And the only way to do that is to figure out what Cadetmon is planning."

They slowly went through the gate and closed it behind them. A path lined on both sides by bushes led from the gate to the stairs of the temple. TK thought it looked more like a gazebo than a temple, but he didn't argue. He climbed up the stone steps and found himself standing on a large empty circle.

"You're sure this is the temple?" he called back.

"Positive. Cadetmon showed us all this place when we first got here. She said we were never supposed to come her without her." The Gotsumon joined him at the top of the stairs. "Not much to look at, is it?"

TK didn't answer. He cautiously walked forward a couple of steps and felt a difference in the floor level. He knelt down and brushed aside the leaves that had fallen and covered the majority of the floor. He uncovered a small raised circle, big enough for one person to stand on. Carved out of the circle was a symbol that reminded TK of a pitchfork. It was painted orange.

"Do you know what this symbol means?" he asked the digimon, but he didn't know.

The boy started moving the leaves around the floor, uncovering six more raised circles, each one with a different symbols.

"I've never seen any of these before," Gotsumon told him, examining each symbol closely. "I wonder what this place was used for."

TK sighed. Even with everything he was discovering while staying at the manor, nothing was making any sense. He still didn't know what Cadetmon was planning.

Thankful that Stana had given him the D-Terminal that morning, he took it from his pocket and sent pictures of the symbols to Kari with an explanation.

"How much longer do you think everyone is going to be practicing for?" he asked Gotsumon.

"At least another hour. The longest was four and half hours. Why?"

"I want to try to get into the cellar, but I need someone to keep watch for me." The digimon reluctantly agreed to help him.

They went around to the front of the manor to avoid being seen by the team. Then Gotsumon watched the training from the kitchen window while TK worked on the locked cellar door.

"If only I could have found the key last night," he muttered as he looked around the room for something he could use instead. He briefly thought of picking the lock, but figured it would probably take a while as he had no idea how to do it.

"I could break it down, if you want," the digimon offered.

"Thanks. But I think Cadetmon will figure out we've been in there then." A message came in on his D-Terminal.

_TK,_

_We're almost there. We just crossed the rope bridge._

_-Kari_

"They're almost here," TK told Gotsumon, but the digimon wasn't listening. The toddler joined him by the window and watched Cadetmon fly into the yard on the back of a Kuwagamon and interrupt the training session. From their position they could hear what was happening, but TK got the message when everyone in the yard turned to look at him and Stana's shouts were loud enough for him to make out.

"Run, TK! Run!"

**Author's Note:**

Well, folks, this is going to have to be my last update for January. I'm moving on Friday and Saturday and as such I probably won't get internet until around Tuesday. I don't think my parents could torture me for longer than that. lol.

There's probably only going to be two or three more chapters of this, unless inspiration hits me. But that's giving time for the battle and the aftermath and all that good stuff. If you have ideas for what should happen though, or something you'd like to see happen, leave them in a review. =)

I think that's all I needed to say. Have a great weekend, and I'll see you next month!

-Lizzy


	11. Follow the Leader

**Author's Note:**

Oh, lovely internet. You have no idea how I've missed you. And all my wonderful readers, too. =D

_AngelOfLight04:_ Thank you. I'm so happy you're enjoying it.

_Urahara144:_ I've been trying to work the answer to that into the dialogue. Hopefully I succeeded this time. Thank you.

_Aero Angemon:_ Just starting to get good? lol. ;)

Chapter Twelve

TK watched, petrified, as Nolan and Taye each grabbed one of Stana's arms to keep her from running to protect the toddler. He could see from his position by the window as Cadetmon handed the two boys a length of rope and they quickly tied the girl's arms behind her back. Spritemon, though she put up a good fight as well, was tied up too.

Cadetmon then began the short march to the kitchen door, followed closely by Kaden, Reid, Cece and their digimon.

"Run," Gotsumon told TK. "I can try to hold them off."

"That won't be necessary," said a voice from the other doorway behind them. Two Vegiemon stood there and made quick work of wrapping the boy and digimon in more rope.

"Nice work, my pets," Cadetmon praised when she walked in the door. Then she knelt down in front of TK. "Such a shame you couldn't be a good little boy and act your age. Now I'm going to have to take you to Spetomon and get him to de-age you properly."

"You'll never get the chance. My friends will be here any second!"

"Oh, I know." She chuckled as she straightened up, which wasn't much of an improvement. She was still shorter than the teens beside her. "I saw your little friends when I was flying in, that's how I knew someone had betrayed me. No one can find this place on their own. But it's not going to make any difference. You're only forcing me to go ahead with the plan early. And when it's all over and your friends are too weak to fight any more, I'll take you all to see Spetomon."

Cadetmon walked swiftly to the cellar door while pulling an old iron key from one of the pockets on her uniform. She unlocked and opened the door quickly, letting it swing open so everyone could see inside, but it was too dark. The light from the kitchen only lit a couple of stairs going down.

She pointed to the two Vegiemon. "You two, go down there. I want the both of them in the temple in ten minutes. Understand?" The lower-level digimon nodded and raced each other down the stairs. "Wait outside," she told everyone else. Cece and Reid took to pushing TK and Gotsumon out the door.

"TK, I'm so sorry," Stana said as the two groups met up on the lawn. "I never meant for any of this to happen."

"It's not your fault."

"Shut it, both of you!" Kaden ordered, in charge again now that Cadetmon wasn't near. Stana glared at him.

"I can't believe you're going along with this," she told him. "We were supposed to be friends. All of us. And now you're suddenly better than everyone? You're pathetic."

"You're not the first to think so," he said quietly. Just then the back door swung open again and the Vegiemon came out, pulling two figures behind them.

The first was a tall, beautiful creature that resembled a butterfly in the way her wings fanned out around her. The Vegiemon had blindfolded her and she was stumbling along behind him. TK guessed this was Ennamon.

The second figure was a girl of about sixteen with short, curly blonde hair down to her shoulders. She looked very pale, as if she hadn't been in the sun for a long time.

"Valeria!" Gotsumon called to the girl happily.

"Oh, Gotsumon. Thank God you're all right," the girl said hoarsely in an Italian accent.

"Val. We ... we thought you left," Reid said. Cece swatted him on the arm. Even Kaden looked a little surprised.

"No. I couldn't do it. I couldn't leave you all."

"But you would have eventually." Cadetmon joined them carrying a small wooden box in her gloved hands. "I had high hopes in the beginning. It seemed like there was no way any of you were going home. It was what brought you together and made you a great team. And then you had to go and assume your family would just welcome you back with open arms." She scowled at Val.

"Even after you decided to stay I knew it would happen again, and I could let it. That's why I had to lock you in the cellar. I would have gladly done it to the others, but I knew they wouldn't try to leave, not if they thought they had nothing to go back to. That's I didn't get so upset whenever someone-" she glared at Stana "-objected to my plan."

"_Your_ plan?" Kaden rounded on her.

"Sorry, slip of the tongue." She patted his shoulder. "Don't worry, kid. You're still the mastermind here. Now, let's get moving. We have to go ahead with the final phase before the digidestined get here."

"What final phase? We haven't discussed anything."

Cadetmon only chuckled and motioned for everyone to follow her. TK knew immediately where they were going when she led them into the gardens. Nobody said a word as they went through the iron gate and stopped at the temple.

"All right, you seven, get in there," Cadetmon told the shadow digidestined. Val and Stana were the only two who didn't start marching up the steps. The Vegiemon pushed them along.

TK and the shadow digimon followed of their own will. Ennamon, still unable to see, stayed where she was.

Cadetmon directed each of the seven teens onto one of the raised stones, or pedestals as she called them. Cece was yelled at for choosing to stand on just any pedestal. As Cadetmon explained, the symbols on each had to match the personality of the person.

"I've never seen these before," Kaden's partner, Mistmon said as he knelt down to examine the pedestal Kaden was placed on. "They look ancient. What do they mean?"

"You'll find out soon enough." Cadetmon grinned at him. When she saw to it that all of the teens were on the proper symbols, she unlocked and opened the small wooden box she still carried. She pulled out one of the tiny vials TK had seen the night before. It had an unfamiliar dark blue liquid inside. This vial was handed to Cece.

"When I tell you to, you're all going to drink from these vials."

"Like hell I am," Stana muttered. Cadetmon heard, but it didn't seem to ruin her good mood.

"There's nothing to worry about. It won't hurt you. It will merely make the bond between you and your digimon partner even stronger, giving you all the power to fight off the intruders."

"I won't fight," Val yelled at the digimon. "They're good people. I won't hurt them."

"Yes, good people. Good people who would rather throw you out of the digital world than wait and listen to your stories, as I have done. You think they're going to care about you? Reid, Cecilia, do you think these spoiled digidestined are going to give a damn that you've grown up in an orphanage? That you have no other home to go to?" She turned to Stana.

"Your mother and step-daddy care more about their precious children than they do about you. Why would you want to go back to that? Valeria, your parents want you start working at the family bookstore. They don't understand your longing to travel the world - stick with me and you can.

"Nolan, you have so much pent up anger for your father that you can't function properly in your world. You don't have to worry about that here. Taye, I understand your frustration at having to get a job since your mother lost hers. You don't have to work here." Cadetmon smiled when one by one the teenagers started agreeing with her. Stana and Val still didn't look convinced, but the digimon wasn't paying any attention to them. Kaden was looking down at the vial of golden liquid he'd been handed, studying it suspiciously.

"Kaden," he flinched when she said his name. "Kaden, you belong here. Face it. Nobody's waiting for you in the real world. Your family made it clear that they never want to see you again, so why are you going to waste your time thinking about them. This is your family now, Kaden. We care about you. And family's take care of each other." She looked each of the teens in the eyes. "The only way any of you can stay is if the digidestined are out of the way. Every last one of them. We need to fight. Together."

A tear rolled Stana's cheek, but she didn't make a sound. Beside her, Valeria was staring far off in the distance at the sky, as if waiting for Kari and the others to appear there suddenly.

Cadetmon silently finished handing out the vials, giving Stana's and Val's to the Vegiemon with orders to force the contents down the girls' throats on her command. TK watched helplessly as she gave the signal and the seven shadow digidestined drank, coughing and gasping after swallowing the foul liquid. Meanwhile Cadetmon started chanting low and fast, reading from a small book that had been in the box as well.

The wind started to pick up, blowing the leaves on the ground all over the place. But unlike with Spetomon's chanting, light did not blind anyone. It did seem to have an effect on the shadow digidestined, however. Each of them fell to their knees only seconds after Cadetmon began.

"It burns," Val gasped. "The drink is burning me."

Cadetmon finished her chanting and grinned at the girl. "Yes. I'm afraid it's one of the side-effects. A few minutes of pain, but you'll be more powerful later."

"_One_ of the side-effects?" Kaden glared at her. "What are the others, then?"

"Oh, let's just say you're not going to feel like yourselves when it's all over." She chuckled as she watched them all kneel in pain.

Loud bird-like screeching was suddenly heard, and TK looked up to the sky to see Kari riding on the back of Nefertimon with five Aquilamon surrounding them. He could just make out his father on the shoulder of an Angemon. Cadetmon seemed unphased as she watched with him.

"They're too late," she told the boy. "In a few seconds it won't matter how many digimon they have with them." She turned back to the circle of humans and watched gleefully as their digivices started to glow.

TK, being closest to Stana, watched as the glow faded and her crest changed before his eyes to the same symbol she was kneeling on.

"My eyes!" Cece yelled, covered them with her hands. The others all did the same except for Val and Stana, who were still tied. "It feels like someone's gouging them out!"

"Nothing to worry about. It'll all be over when the burning stops," Cadetmon told them.

Spritemon screamed when Stana opened her eyes and they were completely red. Beside her, Val's eyes had become an ugly neon green. After they blinked a couple of times, they had gone back to their natural colors. Cadetmon wandered over to them and bowed.

"Welcome back, mistresses."

The girls looked down at the digimon together. But while Valeria seemed obviously pleased about this, grinning, Stana looked angry.

"Cadetmon, is that you? Where are we?" She didn't sound normal, almost like she was having trouble speaking.

"The temple, milady," she answered and looked around at Cece and the boys who were all opening their unnaturally-colored eyes. "I have done as you asked, the digidestined are to be destroyed. And the prophecy, it has come true."

At that, Stana glanced curiously at Val and the others. "Brothers? Sisters?" she whispered unbelievably.

One by one they began to nod, each seeming confused by the situation, but none more than TK.

"Stana, what's going on?" he whispered to the girl. She looked down at him with a questioning glance, then back at Cadetmon.

"Who's he? A new servant?"

"Not quite, ma'am. He's one of the digidestined, de-aged by Spetomon."

From across the temple, Taye growled.

"Spetomon's involved in this now?"

"It was the only way, my lord. It would have taken another thousand digimon to wear-out the digidestined. With Spetomon I was able to de-age eleven of the Japanese and one Russian."

"There can't be many more left, then. Correct?" Stana - or whatever was possessing her - looked expectantly at the still-kneeling digimon.

Cadetmon gulped and smiled nervously at the girl. "Actually, in the past several years, each country has developed it's own team of digidestined. There are now well over a thousand. I have, of course, managed to collect names and information about all of them, except-"

"_Except_?"

"The twenty-four new digidestined, ma'am. They're why I put the plan into action. I figured if I could get the old ones out of the way before they could train the new ones, they'd have no chance of standing up to us." When the Stana-possessing creature and the other six said nothing, Cadetmon took this as a good sign and continued. She pointed to where Kari and the others were flying. "The Japanese are on their way now. I've already sent word to Spetomon to come here and de-age them when they're weak from fighting."

"Why bother de-aging them? Why not just kill them?" asked Nolan.

"I thought you would be please, my lord. With the digidestined reduced to babies-"

"We could raise them as an army. An unstoppable army." Kaden grinned at the idea. "Well done," he praised.

"Thank you. The other countries will surely try to save the Japanese. And that's when we can capture them as well."

"Tell us, Cadetmon, why is it that Spetomon is helping us now. I recall him being determined to destroy us the last time we were here," Valeria said.

"He does not yet know that you are involved, mistress. He thinks that I am in charge of this operation. He still does not approve, however. I had to take his wife for him to help." Cadetmon motioned to Ennamon who stood silently and motionlessly outside of the temple.

"Ennamon," Reid whispered, smiling when he saw her. The Stana-creature swatted the back of his head.

"Do not be fooled. If Spetomon still rejects us, she does as well," she warned him. He frowned and looked away.

"What do we do now, then?" he asked softly.

"We fight. Correct?" Nolan turned to Stana for confirmation. It was strange for TK to see, after witnessing everyone's loyalty to Kaden for the past day and a half.

"Yes. We fight."

**Author's Note:**

Thank you all for waiting patiently while I finished this chapter. It wasn't easy - unpacking is taking up the majority of my time now. But it's worth it. My apartment is beautiful. =D

Not much more of the story left. Now's the time to put in any last-minute theories, suggestions or requests. I'm mapping out the remaining chapters tonight.

-Lizzy


	12. Septem Fetalis Culpas

**Author's Note:**

Thanks again to all my reviewers. Without you, this story would have been left abandoned a long time ago. And I just realized this is now my most-reviewed story!!

Now, onto my lucky number...

Chapter Thirteen

Kari rode on the back of Nefertimon, flying hundreds of feet above the ground. Beside her, Hiroaki stood on the shoulder of his Angemon, urging the digimon forward, to the head of the flying team. Below them, Jim led the ground team and was having a tougher time of it.

The waterfall had been easy for them all to pass, but the rope bridge had been difficult for the humans. And the various digimon nests they'd accidentally wandered into had stalled the ground team for a long time, whereas the others could simply fly over the nests.

After twenty-five minutes of flying in silence, Kari's D-Terminal began to beep, letting her know that she'd received a new message. Praying that it was from TK - and feeling Hiroaki's eyes on her - she began to read. But it was from Gennai.

_Kari,_

_I just got a message from Hallumon. She says that Cadetmon summoned Spetomon to her manor. She's not sure what for, but they're on their way now._

_I've contacted some of our international friends, as you asked me to. They're grouping in the areas you assigned. All you need to do is lure Cadetmon's workers to them._

_Let me know if there's anything else I can help with._

_-Gennai_

The teenager frowned. If Cadetmon wanted Spetomon, that meant she planned for him to do some more de-aging. So either TK was found out, or she was expecting them. Or both. Kari looked ahead to where they could see the manor, surrounded by trees of all shapes and sizes. If TK hadn't sent them the directions, they would never have found this place.

"Is everything all right?" Hiroaki called from just ahead of her.

"I'm not sure. We're going to have to be extra careful though. Spetomon's on his way."

They finished the ride in silence, each wondering what would happen if they failed. If they allowed themselves to be de-aged.

The flyers landed behind the ground crew less than twenty minutes later. They were all standing on the lawn of the manor, staring at it and waiting for something to happen. Expecting trouble. But none came, and after a few minutes Kari grew impatient.

"Go around to the back of the manor," she told Hiroaki. "I'll lead a team into the house."

They split up, the digimon that were able to fit in the front door followed Kari with their partners, and the bigger ones followed Hiro.

From the looks of the inside of the manor, it seemed to be deserted. There was no furniture and no beings - human or otherwise. The entire ground floor was searched quickly when the team met back up in the foyer to attempt the second floor.

Jun and her ExVeemon were at the back of the group. They were just starting to climb the staircase behind everyone when a noise echoed out of the kitchen. Jun stopped and turned back. It sounded like a baby's crying.

"Davis," she whispered, and ran toward the noise. ExVeemon went with her, afraid to leave her alone.

Once in the kitchen, it was clear the sound was coming from the cellar door. The partners shared a look. Jun glanced back into the hall to see if anyone had followed them - no one had - and then out the window where Jim and his parents were examining the training area. Taking a deep breath, she reached for the handle and let the door swing open.

The cellar was dark and there didn't seem to be a light switch anywhere. They couldn't even see the bottom of the stairs. But the crying increased to the point that they had to shout to hear each other.

"Maybe we should turn around. Get the others," ExVeemon suggested. Jun shook her head and started down the stairs, the thought of Davis being in trouble enough to make her ignore any fear or doubt she had about what they were doing. Ever loyal, the digimon followed.

They had just reached the bottom of the stairs when the crying stopped suddenly and turned into a cold laugh. The door swung shut, blocking out what little light they had, and Jun heard the unmistakable sound of it locking.

-----

Kari's team split up as soon as they hit the second floor. There were four doors leading off the hallway, and not enough time to search all of them together. Their group was small as it was, so each team had two people in it. Everyone grabbed the two people closest to them and went in a room, so no one noticed that Jun was missing.

Kotomi Hida had been standing with Kari's mother. The room they chose had two sets of bunk beds in it and smelled worse than a garbage dump. They soon discovered this was due to the pile of sweat-soaked gym clothes.

"Men," Mrs. Kamiya sighed as she stared at the pile.

The women and two Angewomon began rifling through the bookshelves and drawers in the room and closet. Unfortunately they found nothing of importance. Most of the stuff in the room were toys. Even the books didn't contain anything that could help them.

Across the hall, Kari and her father were going through the girls' room, but were having just as bad a time of it. Ken's parents had gone into the digimon resting area - nothing more than seven cots and some toys - and Davis' had wandered into Cadetmon's private room, but were finding out nothing more than TK had the night before.

When they all met back in the hallway, it was clear they were all losing hope. But Kari held on to hers until she visited the attic. She knew from TK's email that Cadetmon was keeping the babies in a makeshift nursery there, but wanted to make sure no one was waiting to attack them on the second floor before venturing up. Unfortunately, she hadn't anticipated on being attacked in the nursery.

The cribs were all empty, but digimon had been hiding the closet and managed to take several of the adults hostage, forcing the others to surrender and allow themselves to be tied up and sent down to the cellar.

-----

Bit by bit, the digidestined were taken out by Cadetmon's workers. The outdoor team had tried to follow the plan and lure the evil digimon away to where the others were waiting for them, but no one was falling for it. The biggest hit was in the gardens.

TK had been positioned, bound and gagged, just outside the iron gate. Hiro and his team of three others, while still cautious of being taken, had no choice but to help the boy.

"That was far too easy," the Stana-possessing creature said as she appeared from behind a rose bush and grinned at the group.

The good digimon paused their attack when they recognized the girl, not yet knowing that she wasn't herself.

"Take them," she commanded, and the seven champion shadow digimon did as they were told, though very reluctantly.

An hour had passed from the moment the digidestined landed on the grounds of the manor, to when they all sat with TK near the temple, staring up at the sky for any sign of Spetomon. The digimon - shadow and light - had been tossed in the cellar by Cadetmon's workers. The Kaden-creature had deemed the shadow digimon too risky to keep around on a regular basis.

Spetomon eventually came, Hallumon right behind. They both looked disappointed when they saw the humans tied up, but even more so when they realized Cadetmon was no longer in charge.

"If I do this last job for you, will you let my Ennamon go?" he asked, afraid of the answer.

"Perhaps," said Cecilia. "The original agreement was for you to de-age all of the children around the world. But, seeing as these new ones weren't part of the deal, we'll let it slide."

"But we may have jobs for you in the future," Taye continued. "Like finishing off the others. We hope we won't have to go to such extreme measures as kidnapping again."

Hallumon growled at the teen. "Don't threaten us."

"It wasn't a threat. I can guarantee that the next time you don't agree with something we do, we'll blast a hole right in the side of your precious mountain. Just like last time." Nolan chuckled at the memory.

"_Last time_?" Spetomon repeated. "We've never met you before." Hallumon put a hand on his shoulder.

"Let's just do the job and get out of here."

The larger digimon nodded and started his chanting. It crossed his mind several times to direct the chanting at Cadetmon and her seven humans, but he wasn't sure if Ennamon was in the manor. And if she wasn't, he'd never find her without Cadetmon's help.

Cecilia smiled at the twenty-five infants that had been left behind on the grass when Spetomon finished. She made to pick one up when an Agumon appeared and blocked her path. He was followed by the other nine of the original digimon, minus Patamon. Cece chuckled as she looked down at the digimon.

"You don't scare me," she told them. "And you certainly can't hurt me." With a slight wave of her hand, she sent three of them flying back into the forest. A snap of her fingers and the remaining eight crumpled to the ground.

"Throw them in with the others," Stana order the Vegiemon. "And bring Ennamon up here."

Spetomon was allowed to leave once he had Ennamon in his arms. Hallumon gave Nolan a long hard look before flying out after her friends.

"Put the humans in the nursery and secure the grounds. I don't want any more intruders." When the Vegiemon had each picked up a baby and gone into the house, Stana turned to Cadetmon. "Do you have anything else for us, or is this where we're to take over?"

"I do have a ... _suggestion_, mistress." She received a nod for the possessed girl, and Cadetmon began to lead the teens up to her room.

-_Marthol Mountain-_

The three ancient digimon returned to their cave home to find the main room filled with three boys. The Poi brothers.

"Where's Kari?" asked the middle brother.

"Is everyone safe?" said the oldest.

Hally waved Spetomon and his wife into the next room so she could be healed, then the little pixie focussed on answering the questions.

"I'm afraid Kari - and all the others - have been de-aged. Cadetmon has them at the manor."

"Great. We'll just meet up with the others and go and get them."

"It's not going to be easy," she warned. "Cadetmon's not in charge anymore. There are seven humans with her. They look like teenagers, but act very differently. One even recalled an incident that happened centuries ago."

"How is that possible?"

Hally frowned. "As I told Kari a few days ago, we've met Cadetmon before. Both times she was working for someone bigger. Recruiting for him. The first one was an easy target. Spetomon de-aged him and his army and that was the end of it. The second one, though, he was much trickier.

"He attacked us several times. Blasted a hole into the side of our mountain here. Nearly hit us. When it came time to finally take him down, he was gone. His army remained - or what was left of it - and we took care of them, but he was gone. He called himself Ira." Hally began to pace. "I never did see what he really looked like though. Like me, he was good at illusions. Most of the time he looked like smoke."

"Maybe he was never a digimon." said the youngest.

"Is there anything besides humans and digimon?" the middle brother asked.

"There are legends of things more powerful. Things that aren't living, so they can never die. They have no body, but are able to think and speak. Mostly we just dismiss these as fairytales, but under the circumstances...."

"Would they be able to possess a human?"

"Probably. If all he ever was was smoke, then I suppose so."

"We should go warn the others," said the older boy. "We need to regroup and think of a plan."

"Just be careful. There are seven of these beings. There's no telling what they could do. And they look like humans, so they could easily get into your world and stop you from there."

_-The Manor-_

"Everything you need to know is in these files," Cadetmon said as she handed each of her bosses a folder with a few sheets of paper and a map inside. "And take these as well." She passed out D-Terminals. "We can keep in contact with them, in case there are any problems."

"There won't be any problems," Stana assured her, though it sounded more like a warning than anything else.

The teenagers left her room and went to their own, changing into more appropriate clothing for the areas they were going to, and packing the rest of the clothing and objects up. They were back downstairs in minutes and left the manor without any goodbyes, searching for the first television set to take them into the real world.

_-Primary Village-_

The brothers arrived at the village in a matter of minutes thanks to a ride from another resident of Spetomon's cave.

The colorful and usually peaceful place still looked chaotic after the previous day's battle there. The baby digimon had been moved further into the village, and were being guarded by Elecmon and some of his friends. Currently it was being used as a meeting place for several of the digidestined who had become worried about the Japanese when Kari didn't contact them after an hour. Gennai had also come.

"Well? Are they okay?" Sam, one of the Americans, asked.

The oldest brother, Manchu, shook his head sadly. "They've all been de-aged. But Hallumon thinks she knows something about the enemy." The brothers explained about the seven shadow digidestined and the things they thought were possessing them.

"I remember that war," Gennai said when they were finished. "It was particularly nasty because it didn't appear to have any purpose. Whoever was behind it - we weren't sure in the beginning - just started attacking anyone for the sake of fighting, it seemed. I never did find out his name."

"Hallumon said he called himself Ira."

"That explains it. In some languages, Ira means wrath."

"Wrath?" Yuri repeated. "Like the sin?"

"One of the seven deadly sins. Or septum fetalis culpas," Gennai agreed, frowning. "And you say there are seven humans? That's an awful coincidence."

"Does it mean anything?" Rosa wondered.

"Possibly. Everything from your world has some effect on ours, and vice versa. It's quite possible that while in your world the seven deadly sins are nothing more than guide to live by, here they have become living breathing creatures and take on whatever trait they are named for."

"If so - if they look like humans and have abilities - then we're dead. We'll never be able to stop them," Sam worried.

"We can't think like that," said Zhi, the middle Poi. "Kari and the others need our help. We're the only hope they have of getting back to normal."

"I'll do anything to help," Rosa said determinedly.

"The problem," Gennai began, forcing the small group to look at him again, "is not a lack of manpower. It's that we don't yet know what they want. All we have is what TK found in Cadetmon's room yesterday. Some maps of the real world. And all that tells us is that they may be trying to travel there, but it doesn't tell us exactly where."

"If they were dumb enough, they may go to their human's home town. Although we don't know the names of the humans," said Zhi.

"So then it would actually be a pretty smart plan," his older brother joked.

"Maybe TK and Kari know," said Yuri. "They said one of the shadow digidestined had come to them. Perhaps she told them their names."

"Well, that's just great. But in case you haven't noticed, TK and Kari couldn't even string a sentence together right now, let alone tell us the names of our enemies," Manchu said bitterly.

"No, but there may be a clue at TK's apartment."

It was a long-shot, but the only lead the team had to go on. Sam was the first to offer to go to the apartment, and the others all agreed, so long as he kept in contact.

**Author's Note:**

Hmm, I'm not sure I really like what I did to the team in this chapter. Let me know what you guys think?

I'm pretty sure I've got an ending for the story now. Or at least a way out of the corner I've just painted myself into by getting rid of the team. (oops)

-Lizzy

Oh, I almost forgot! _Ira_ and _Septem Fetalis Culpas_ are Latin for wrath and the seven deadly sins - I think. I don't know Latin, so I had to do searches word-by-word. Correct me if I'm wrong, please!


	13. Working Overtime

**Author's Note:**

_Urahara144: _Thank you!

_AngelOfLight04: _I was able to find several pages that all had the Latin words for the sins themselves, so I know those are fine. But I had to type 'Seven,' 'Deadly' and 'Sins' in separately.

_Tamara Caitlyn:_ Oh, you forget, there's still one digidestined left. ;)

_Aero Angemon: _There will be another battle, don't worry. And I hope this makes up for the last chapter being short.

_Kaydreams:_ Thanks for reviewing!

_takaishi hikaru: _Hmm. You're probably right. I thought I ruined it after posting that chapter. But, I also think I managed to salvage it. Please keep reading and let me know what you think. =)

On with the show!

Chapter Fourteen

-_The Apartment-_

After filling the American team in on the latest plan, Sam headed out to find a portal that would take him to TK's apartment. Lou, another American, joined him to be sure nothing happened along the way.

The apartment was empty save for a Patamon lying on the master bed beside a digiegg. At the sound of their footsteps, the rookie flew up and through a Bubble Blast at them. It punched a hole in the wall.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," he apologized when he recognized the boys. "I was dreaming of Cadetmon and then I heard you coming and ... I guess I got a little carried away."

"Just a little," Lou agreed, brushing wall fragments from his jacket.

"Where are the others? Is TK back yet?" The boys shared a look and Patamon's heart sank. "They're all gone, aren't they?"

"Just de-aged. But don't worry, we'll get them back," Sam assured the digimon, then he looked at the digiegg curiously. "What's that doing here?"

"That's TK's mom's digiegg. She's out of town right now and can't come back until Friday."

"Does she know about ... any of this?"

"She knows something is wrong, but not what."

"We could use her help," Lou muttered. "But we can't wait three days."

"We won't have to." Sam grinned, Lou and Patamon looked at him strangely, but he didn't say a word until he'd taken them into the kitchen and picked up the phone. There was a list of phone numbers on the fridge. Sam looked it over once and then started dialing.

There was a long pause while the phone rang on the other end, then he was met with an irritated "Hello?"

"Mrs Takaishi? This is Sam Gibson, a friend of TK's from America."

"What's wrong with TK?" she asked immediately. Sam sighed.

"It's not so much what's wrong with him as opposed to what I need your help with, ma'am."

"I already told TK that I can't come home until Friday. If I finish quickly, maybe I can get there Thursday night."

"Well, I've been thinking about that actually. You see, they can't in their right mind keep you at work if TK or Matt is missing or injured."

"Is that what it is, then?" she wondered "Are they missing?"

"Not at all. We know exactly where they are."

Nancy sighed into the phone. "Even if they let me go, the earliest I can get there is tomorrow morning."

"That's fine. Thank you." Sam hung up the phone and grinned again. "She'll be here tomorrow. In the meantime, we're just going to have to wait."

"And pray," Lou added.

**INVIDIA**

_-Milton, Ontario, Canada-_

The Stana-creature appeared in a little internet cafe. It was pitch black outside, and snowing heavily. The clock above the door told her it was forty-seven minutes after midnight. She looked curiously around the room. It was crowded, all the tables were full, and no one noticed her until a young man standing behind a counter waved at her.

"Kyndrick, over here!" he shouted above the noise. She moved toward him.

"I was hoping you'd come back." He smiled at her, but she didn't seem thrilled.

"I'm sorry, who are you?"

"Uh, Dennis. Dennis Burke. We met last month ... here. You've come in here and talked to me at least four times since then."

"My memory is a little ... messed up tonight. I'm just on my way home to get some sleep. I suppose I'll see you around." She faked a smile and left before he could say anything else.

Once on the sidewalk, she pulled from her backpack a map and looked it over a few times before walking South. After a half an hour, she stood in front of a two-story house with a navy minivan in the driveway and the porch light on.

"The ultimate test," she muttered, walking up the path to the front door. She reached in her jacket pocket where she put the house keys, but the door swung open before she had the chance to find it.

A woman of about forty stood in the doorway, an older version of Stana in every way - from her short brown curls to her emerald eyes. They stood there, staring at each other for a few seconds before the older woman stepped onto the porch and wrapped the teen in a hug.

"I'm so happy you're home," she whispered in her ear.

"So am I," Stana agreed, her eyes flashing red for a moment.

**GULA and LUXURIA**

_-Augusta, Georgia, USA-_

Cecilia and Reid landed in a treehouse. On the floor beside them was an old, beat-up laptop that didn't look reliable enough to turn on, let alone open a portal to another universe. Nevertheless, Cece stuffed it into her bag and the twins slowly descended the ladder on to the lightly snow-covered ground of a park. There was only one nearby street light to see by. And luckily there was no one around to wonder why two teens were climbing out of a treehouse at ten to one in the morning.

The siblings started walking aimlessly down the street. They didn't speak, and made no move to pull out the map they'd been given. They didn't do anything at all until they hit Main Street, where people were coming and going out of the various stores, or walking home.

Cece stopped in front of a pizzeria and began sniffing the air. Reid stopped a few feet ahead of her when he noticed she was no longer with him. He turned back and studied her curiously.

"What are you doing?"

"Don't you smell that? It's heavenly," she breathed, taking in more of the scent of fresh pizza.

Reid scrunched up his face in disgust. "Don't get carried away. It smells worse than Acedia when she doesn't wash for three weeks. Let's go." He tugged at her arm gently.

"I want to go in. I'm _starving_," she whined.

"When aren't you starving? Come on. We've got a job to do." Cece had just started to reluctantly move again when the teens were stopped by a man at least five years older than them.

"Reid? Cece? I've been looking all over for you two!" He pulled the girl into a hug but she pushed him away quickly. "Where have you been hiding?"

The twins looked at each other hesitantly. They'd been told no one would be looking for them. Reid was the first to say anything.

"I'm sorry, sir. We were just visiting some friends out of town."

"Sir?" The man looked between them astounded. "Guys, it's me. Paul. We were at the orphanage together for twelve years. You don't remember me?"

The teens remained silent, but Cece glared at her brother for his mistake.

Paul let the subject drop for the moment, crossing his arms over his chest. "Okay, who were these friends you were visiting? Why haven't I heard of them before?"

Reid sighed. "You don't work at this orphanage, right? You're not our guardian in any way?"

"No, of course not." Paul seemed rather angry as he said it.

"Good. Then we don't have to answer any of your questions." The twins walked around the stunned man, but he recovered quickly and grabbed both of their arms.

"That may be. But I already promised Madam Kirk that I would bring you two back if I ever found you. My car's just down the road. I'm sure she'll be thrilled to have you back." All friendly tones were gone from his voice as he dragged the teens down the sidewalk and shoved them in the back seat of his car.

**IRA**

-_Dublin, Ireland-_

It was four in the morning on Tuesday in Dublin. Nolan had wound up being transported into an electronics store that had been closed for the night. After looking around for a little while, and examining the human gadgets that he found mildly interesting, he unlocked the door and left.

He was amazed momentarily by the lights of the city, and by the large amount of people. Somewhere, in the back of his mind, he had assumed that there weren't very many humans. Like a small tribe. Watching only about a hundred people in one city in the whole world made the coming task seem nearly impossible, but he was never one to back down from a challenge.

"Nolan Drake, how do you survive here?" he muttered to himself as he started walking down one street, still watching the people around him. Somewhere in his head, he felt a sharp pain, but ignored it and started to pull out his map. Circled in red was an apartment address. His finger brushed over top of the address, but he shook his head and started looking at the other places circled. "We're not ready to go home yet. I have to know how you behave first. I can't slip up at the wrong time."

A woman walking by stopped when she heard him seemingly talking to himself. She studied him for a couple of seconds before making up her mind and approached him. She appeared to be in her mid-thirties, with a tanned heart-shaped face and long brown hair.

"Are you new in town, boy?" she asked him, nodding at the map.

He folded the paper so she could not see the places marked. "Yes. I'm just exploring a bit."

"At this hour? By yourself?" She seemed skeptical at first, but quickly changed to simply worried. "Do you have a place to stay?"

He thought this over carefully before answering. He wanted nothing more than to sit quietly and watch the people on the street, to learn their mannerisms and speech, but this woman was possibly giving him another - better - opportunity. To examine people up close.

"No. I was just searching for one."

"It's late. Why don't you stay with me for the night, and I can help you search in the morning? My name is Ellen Finnigan, what's yours?"

"Ira," he answered quickly and mentally kicked himself for it. They were all to assume the identities of their respective humans, no matter what. Only when together could they be themselves. "Ira Wrath. And that sounds perfect. Thank you."

**AVARITIA**

_-London, United Kingdom-_

Kaden studied himself in the bathroom mirror of the London Heathrow Airport. He frowned. In the middle of all the chaos back at the manor, he hadn't found the time to see what he looked like in his new body. And now that he was away from the others and could do as he pleased again, he was a little disappointed.

Humans weren't an especially _pretty_ species, but they had their moments. There were a few of the Japanese digidestined whom he had admired before their de-aging. But this boy he was forced to live in was positively ugly. Dark brown eyes, a long nose and small mouth. His hair was a wonderful shade of blonde, sure, but it'd been cut into little tufts.

"I could've done a better job with my old claws," he muttered. A man passing by stopped and stared for a moment before hurriedly leaving the restroom. "And you probably burn at the first sign of sunlight." He glared at the porcelain skin.

The clothes he tried to ignore altogether. While they weren't exactly perfect for the winter weather, they were the only ones out of Kaden's things that the creature liked. Black running shoes with a grey pair of shorts, a short-sleeved white shirt and a black leather jacket. He was freezing by the time he stepped out of the warmth of the men's room.

Kaden had originally appeared behind the customer service desk. The woman working there was terrified, but he assured her that it was just an illusion. She preferred to agree with him than think of the possibility of losing her mind.

He looked over his papers while sitting in a quiet little restaurant. It was just opening and the only place he could find in the entire airport that was crawling with screaming kids. He could imagine how people handed the noise in the afternoon when it was only four-twenty in the morning..

The papers told him that Kaden Leach was originally from Newcastle upon Tyne, which was about two hundred and forty-six miles away. They did not explain why he had come to London, but the creature possessing him wasn't really interested in that part. Checking his pockets, he found that he had just enough money to get a seat on the next plane to Newcastle, but it would be for several more hours.

Settling into his seat in the restaurant, he decided to spend his time getting familiar with the humans.

**SUPERBIA**

_-Abuja, Nigeria, Africa-_

Taye consulted his maps as soon as he landed to try and figure out exactly where he was. He was in a darkly-lit bedroom with little furniture and a joining bathroom. Cadetmon's notes told him he was in the Dryden Hotel where he was supposed to be working as a cleaner. Thankfully the room had been empty when he arrived, but he was sure to leave before the person staying there caught him.

The young teen wandered down to the lobby and headed for the front doors casually, acting like a guest there. He had his hand on one of the door knobs when someone held onto his arm and pulled him back. He turned around and found a large man in his mid-forties staring down at him.

"Diya, what do you think you're doing here?"

"I beg your pardon?" the boy said, pulling his arm free.

"Don't play around, kid. You've been gone for over a month. Do you know how much trouble you're going to be in? Come on." The man grabbed his arm again, tightening his grip as Taye struggled.

"Where are you taking me?" he demanded.

"Down to the kitchen to see your aunt. She'll know what to do with you. And don't think this is going to get you out of work. Once your parents sort you out, you can pick up where you left off here. I'm normally not so generous, but your aunt's the best cook I've got."

Taye didn't say another word as they walked. He could have easily escaped the man's grasp without so much as breaking a sweat, but violence was never his thing. Though he could do it quite well, he preferred to manipulate people.

There were only two women in the kitchen when the men arrived. Taye figured this was due to the early hour. One of them looked to be about eighteen. The other was in her thirties, at least.

"Keeya," said Taye's captor. The older woman looked up from her work station. Spotted Taye, she ran over to the men and hugged the boy.

"Don't ever do that again. We thought you were dead," she whispered in his ear.

"I'm sorry, ... Aunt Keeya," he said through clenched teeth.

She thanked their boss quickly and when he was gone, she turned to the girl working behind her.

"Natine, cover for me while I take Taye home? I won't be more than twenty minutes."

Natine nodded and they left. Keeya called a taxi and pushed her nephew into the car before herself. When they started moving, she faced him.

"Where have you been?"

"It's a long story."

"Good. Because your parents are going to want to hear it."

He groaned, but said nothing. Mentally he cursed Invidia for telling him to meet Taye's family.

**ACEDIA**

_-Soffiano, Italy-_

"This is unexpected," Valeria said as she emerged from the desktop computer and found herself standing in a living room. She had been anticipating something a little more outdoorsy than this. From what Cadetmon had told her, the shadow digidestined had all run away.

She wandered through the house quietly, peeking into the upstairs bedrooms and watching the three humans - two adults and a young boy - sleeping soundly. There was a third bedroom that was unoccupied. It was obviously a girl's room. A vanity table, complete with all sorts of perfumes and make up sat in one corner, and half of the closet was filled with dresses and such. It was in the closet where Val hid a little later when then woman came in and looked around the room once. Shortly after, she watched the whole family leave from the bedroom window.

When she was sure they were gone, she plopped down on her new bed and turned on the tv. It was her idea of studying the humans.

_-Milton-_

It was now six o'clock on Tuesday night. Stana sat in her family's living room, watching her two younger siblings playing on the rug while her mother and step-father watch her from the couch across from her. Slowly, she looked up and met their eyes with a questioning glance.

It had been a long day. First they grilled her, asking where she'd been for the past month and a half, and who with, and why they should believe her when she explained that she really had no recollection of the time away from home. After that, the adults had taken the day off work and spent the entire time watching television with Stana, or helping her to regain some of the memory she was pretending to have forgotten. But most of the time they were just staring at her like they were right now, as if she was a bomb that could explode at any second.

"Stana, dear, do you want to help me in the kitchen?" her mother asked as she stood to begin making dinner. The teen followed her silently, dreading any second she had to spend with the two brats behind her.

For a while the woman didn't say anything either, busying herself with taking out pots and opening cans and taking things out of the fridge. Eventually she got around to putting three green peppers on a cutting board and telling her daughter to chop them. Stana did the work quickly - a little quicker, she supposed, than a normal human could have, but she hadn't come here to learn how to cook.

After a few more minutes of standing around doing nothing, Stana excused herself to use the bathroom. When she made sure the door was locked, she pulled out the D-Terminal and started typing a message to the others, telling them to start their work tonight, whenever they could get away.

Dinner was on the table when she returned to the main rooms. She ate silently - and with some difficulty - with the family. The human food was not as tasty as her usual meals.

"I'm going to go out tonight," she mentioned casually as she helped her step-father bring the dirty dishes into the kitchen where her mother was washing them. Both of the adults turned and looked at her. "Problem?" she asked innocently.

"I'm not so sure that's a good idea," her mother said. "You just got back. And you still don't remember a lot."

"I won't be gone long," she promised. "I'm just going for a little walk. Maybe it'll jog my memory."

They eventually conceded, so long as she was back before ten. The girl smiled and waved at them as she walked down the driveway and sidewalk. When she was out of sight, she breathed a sigh of relief. She was on her way to the little internet cafe when she ran into her first victim.

He was a middle-aged man walking his dog. He seemed friendly enough, smiling as he started to pass her, but she quickly put her hand out to stop him.

"Something wrong, miss?" he asked, a little weary now.

She smiled sweetly and put her hand on his shoulders, looking him right in the eyes. "Not at all, I just wanted to say, I really like your dog." Her eyes glowed red momentarily, but the man didn't startle. His eyes were glowing as well. She released his shoulder and moved on. He did the same.

By the time she reached the internet cafe, she'd treated three more people to her powers. And they, in turn, had each treated three more people, and so on.

_-Augusta-_

Paul made good on his promise to Mrs. Kirk. He drove Cece and Reid straight to the Sunny Meadow orphanage and stayed for the questioning they got from Kirk herself. Neither of them said a word, angering both Paul and the older woman.

The twins were sent to separate dorm rooms that were otherwise empty, despite having four beds in each room. Kirk had told them to stay there - sleep, if they must - until the morning, at which point they ate in the kitchens with her instead of the dining room with the other children. Another hour of casual questioning did no good, however. They still refused to tell her anything, and whenever they did speak it would be to ask her questions about their life at the orphanage.

After breakfast, they were allowed to wander about the orphanage as they had before leaving. She did warn them, though, that their former beds had already been filled.

"This place is horrible," Reid complained to his sister as they sat together in the corner of the tv room and watched the other children. "It's no wonder these two ran away."

"At least the food's good," Cece admitted. He scowled at her.

"Just once, can you think about anything other than the food?"

"Of course. If you can for one day ignore all the pretty girls that walk past you." She grinned. Suddenly their D-Terminals beeped and the pulled them out.

"Are those the new video game systems?" asked an eight-year-old boy. "How'd you get them?"

"Go away," Reid growled quietly, so only the boy would hear. He wisely did as he was told.

"Where should we go first?" Cecilia wondered her twin after they'd read Stana's letter. "It's too far to walk to that busy street we were on earlier."

"Perhaps we could get a ride from that Kirk woman."

"Her? Don't tell me you think she's attractive."

"My cravings work in strange ways, you know that."

Cece gave a short laugh. "I know the main reason you're going along with this plan is to suck up to Invidia, yes. As for Kirk, go right ahead and turn her. I'll be in the kitchen if you need me."

_-Dublin-_

Nolan - or Ira, as he was being called - stayed with Ellen and her family until the morning. When she offered to drive him to a nearby hotel, he refused and told her he wanted to visit some friends first. In the end, she wound up giving him another lift, this time to his house.

His mother was waiting inside, just getting ready for work when he walked in the front door. She very nearly fainted when she saw him. He, of course, wasn't sure what to do - or say, for that matter, when she asked him if he'd been off searching for his father the whole time. According to the information Cadetmon had put together for him, Nolan's father hadn't been around for a year. No one knew where he was.

He'd eventually said no, and made up some excuse about needing to be alone to think. After that he spent the better part of the day alone in the house while his mother went off to work. He had to wait until it was nine at night before he received word from Stana. Mrs. Drake didn't say anything when he was reading the letter, but she did give the D-Terminal a strange look.

Nolan waited until she was going to bed before sneaking out of the house. He initially pretended to be going to bed himself, but heard her heavy breathing minutes later and climbed out the window. Happy to be at least partially free for the night, he took a walk around the neighborhood. Anyone unfortunate enough to run into him was met with a glare from orange eyes and soon found themselves becoming much angrier....

_-Newcastle Upon Tyne-_

It was three hours after arriving in the airport that Kaden's plane began to take board. The flight from London to Newcastle only took a half hour. But by the time he found a cab and an address to go to, it was almost eight in the morning. This was evidently too early for the other residents of Kaden's supposed home.

After searching twice, he found no house keys in his bag, so he knock loudly on the door before someone answered. It was a man, roughly around thirty-eight years old though he looked a lot older having not shaved in several days in not weeks. His hair was the same nice blonde color, but it was dirty. The man's eyes were much darker than Kaden's, almost black. He was wearing a bathrobe and smelled heavily of beer.

"What're you doing here?" he demanded a few seconds after opening the door. "I thought we made it clear, we don't want you here any more."

"I thought...." The teenager trailed off. This was certainly not was he was expecting of human families.

"What? You thought we'd change our mind and want you back?" He chuckled. "Why would be do that? You think we want you bossing us around all day, acting like you're better than us? No thank you."

"You're supposed to be my father though, aren't you?" He was starting to wonder if he'd found the wrong house.

"Not any more. I let you keep the clothes and gave you enough money for a ticket and food, now get the hell out of here." And he slammed the door in his son's face.

"Interesting," Kaden muttered as he left the house and wandered down the street.

When he finally got Stana's message at nine, he had already wreaked some havoc on the small town, having stolen some food for himself - finding this much more fun than paying - and taking a car as well. The car was easily disposed of when he saw the police cars following him. He emerged from the crash without a scratch, and hidden from the cops coming to investigate, until the time came to share his ability with them. They left the scene yelling at each other instead of the boy.

_-Abuja-_

Keeya left Taye in the care of his parents and only stayed long enough to hear his ridiculous excuse of having been staying with friends before she left to go back to work.

"Taye, we checked with your friends when you disappeared," his father told him. "Now where were you?"

The fifteen year old didn't seem to be listening. He was looking around the room - one large room serving as both living and dining room. The interest he showed in it, as if he'd never seen any of the furniture or decorations before, worried his parents.

"Are you sure you're all right?" his mother asked, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder which he quickly shook off.

"I'm fine," he said impatiently. "Don't you two have somewhere to be?" The adults shared looks.

"Not for a few hours," said his father.

"Your father and I managed to find work late last month, actually. You won't have to go back to working at the hotel with your aunt. We ... We know how you hated it there."

"Yes. And your sister's been helping us a lot as well."

Taye tapped his foot, becoming bored with the conversation. "Is she here right now ... this sister of mine?"

"She's upstairs, sleeping. She just got off work an hour ago."

"Hmm. I'll deal with her in a minute then. Come closer," he ordered. When his parents didn't move, he came to them, placing his palms on their arms and glaring into their eyes. Unnaturally bright blue eyes. When he let go, both of his parents started heading for the stairs.

"I'm going back to work," his father said. "I've done enough work already. No sense in wasting my time at that place."

"Lucky you. That company would fall apart if I didn't go in."

Taye grinned as he followed them. While they went into the master bedroom, he went into another. There was a girl around nineteen sleeping in the room. He put his hand over her mouth so he wouldn't have to waste time talking with her. When she opened her alarmed eyes, his were already glowing. And when he was sure she'd gotten a nice dosage of his power, he sat back and relaxed until he got Stana's message at ten, when he started going door-to-door.

_-Soffiano-_

Valeria had fallen asleep while watching tv. It hadn't helped her much anyhow, but it had been fun. The rest of the day she spent between sleeping and making frequent trips down to the kitchen for snacks.

She was woken for the last time when the De Luca family returned home at six-thirty. And she was more than happy to play along as they fawned over her and cooked a big meal in celebration of her 'returning home.'

The family became worried when she sadly told them that she had to go out for a few hours after Stana's message. But she did them all a favor, setting them at ease with a stare from glowing green eyes. She even managed to convince her father to drive her around town for the night.

_-TK's Apartment-_

While the shadow digidestined wreaked havoc across the globe on Tuesday night, it was already eight in the morning on Wednesday in Tokyo. Sam and Lou had stayed over at the apartment to keep Patamon company, and make sure no one came to steal the egg. Together they'd been able to work out a new plan and send messages to everyone else to be prepared.

Nancy came home to find the two boys sleeping in her living room. The rest of the apartment was relatively tidy, except for numerous coats, shoes and bags in her hallway from all the visitors they'd been getting since she left.

She found Patamon sitting at the kitchen table eating some cereal out of a bowl, without a spoon. She was sad to say that finding him like this had become a habit in the past few years, so she didn't bother to argue and chose instead to join him with her own bowl. There had been no time to eat before leaving the hotel that morning.

"So, are you going to tell me what's going on, or should I wake up the boys?" she asked by way of greeting.

The digimon slurped up the last of the milk in the bowl and frowned at her. "Do you want the short or the long version?"

"Do we have time for the long version?"

"Good point. So there's this digimon, Spetomon who has the power to de-age humans and digimon. But Cadetmon kidnapped his wife and would only return her if Spetomon de-aged all of the digidestined around the world."

"Oh, no," Nancy moaning, guessing what was coming now.

"Well, he got everyone but TK and Kari, who started working with Spetomon. But they were taken and de-aged yesterday with everyone else."

"Everyone else?"

"Well, you see, we figured out that the only reason Cadetmon was doing this now was because she'd found out that twenty-four new digidestined were coming. We managed to find all but one. The would be you."

"Me? How?"

"We're not sure. Our best guess is it's kind of contagious. The other families are digidestined as well."

"So, that's it. They're gone? And if I'd been here, they probably wouldn't be, right?"

"No, not at all! If you'd been here, they would've taken you too! And we've got a plan, but we do need your help."

"Perfect." Nancy stood up from the table, all thoughts of eating gone now. "Let's go."

"Wait! There's one more thing you should know. We found out that Cadetmon's not exactly in charge anymore. She answers to seven teenagers who call themselves the shadow digidestined and are being possessed by the digimon variations of the Seven Deadly Sins."

She sighed, glaring at the little creature on her table. "Is there anything else?"

"No. You should probably go get your digimon and crest now."

Nancy held open the swinging door. "Lead the way."

**Author's Note:**

There were so many reviews to answer, I didn't get a chance to say this above- there were 5,540 words in this chapter. That's my biggest chapter EVER!! -does happy dance-

Okay, now that that's out of my system, please review and let me know what you think. There will probably only be two chapters left, maybe ... if I really stretch it ... I can get three out of this.

-Lizzy


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